A Ninja and a Keybearer
by Sabrepaw AKA CrazyPirateMouse
Summary: When Konoha is lost to the darkness Naruto wakes up to find himself in Traverse Town. But before that happens a stranger kidnaps Sakura and tells Naruto to find the Keybearer so he can help restore the worlds. Kingdom Hearts X Naruto Full summary inside
1. The Storm

I Hey! I'm back!! And I've come with a Naruto / Kingdom Hearts cross over!! Just so you know, there probably won't be any pairings. But it will be cool anyway! So, here's the first chappie. Enjoy!!

_Summary:_ A Naruto and Kingdom Hearts crossover. A big raging storm happens in Konoha, Splitting Team 7 up. Sakura is kidnapped by a cloaked man. Sasuke disappears in a black portal, and Naruto wakes up to find himself in Traverse Town. Our favorite blonde shinobi has been given a mission though, by none other than Sakura's kidnapper. He must find the keybearer and restore peace to the worlds, only then can he return home to the Leaf Village. But who's this "keybearer"? What's a keyblade? Uzumaki Naruto's life will take a sudden turn, but for better or worse, only time can tell. Slightly AU.

**A Ninja and a Keybearer**

_Chapter 1: The Storm_

t wasn't a normal day in Konoha. Dark clouds swept over the village forewarning its residents of the horrible storm on the way. Every shinobi, child, and civilian ran for the cover of their houses. However, three Genin walked out of the Hokage building and into the empty street. Team 7 had just finished reporting the D-rank mission they had completed.

"We'd better get home soon," said the pink haired girl.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow," said the raven-haired boy in a monotone voice.

"Bye, Sakura! Bye Sasuke-teme!" said the loud blonde.

"Hn," said Sasuke as he walked toward the Uchiha compound, his home.

Sakura nodded to the blonde boy. "Make sure you get home safe, Naruto," she said, before heading to her own house.

Naruto grinned his signature grin and headed toward his apartment. Luckily, he'd just opened the door and walked in when the storm hit. Strong winds threatened to uproot the trees and huge raindrops fell from the sky. Naruto looked out his window and sighed. _'Thank goodness we aren't out on another mission,'_ he thought. He leaned back on his bed and stared up at the ceiling. Eventually sleep got the better of him and he curled up under the covers.

"_Sora!" someone called out. A pretty girl with short red hair ran into view and up to a boy with spiky brown hair._

"_Hey, Kairi!" he called out happily._

_The boy ran ahead. He was smiling as he looked over his shoulder at another boy with shoulder length silver hair. The silver haired boy was quickly catching up to him. The brown haired boy quickly put on a burst of speed, intent on beating his friend, but the other boy just laughed as he caught up and passed him._

_The girl, Kairi, looked over at a boy sitting on a dock next to her enjoying the sunset and smiled at him. "Sora, don't ever change," she said. He just grinned at her and continued to watch the sun._

_The boy looked on in fear as the silver haired boy stood with his hand stretched out, darkness swirling around him. "Riku!" the boy called out, desperate to get to him._

A crack of thunder jolted Naruto awake. He paused, trying to shake away the strange dream. _'What was all that?'_ he wondered. He yawned and looked out his window. His eyes widened as he saw someone running in the streets. _'Idiot,'_ he thought. _'Who in their right mind would be out in thi-?' _Naruto paused in mid thought when he saw light hit pink hair. Sakura.

Naruto quickly changed into his usual orange jump suit and ran out the house, picking up his kunai pouch and shuriken holder on the way out. Just by simple habit did he pick up his headband and stuff it in his pocket.

"Sakura!" he called out, trying to keep up with the figure way ahead of him. "Sakura what are you doing?" Sakura stopped and turned to look at him. Fear was in her green eyes.

"Wh- where's Sasuke?" she stuttered.

"What do you mean 'Where's the Teme'? He's probably home sleep-"

"NO! He's not there! I already checked!" The terror in her eyes showed in her voice.

Just then an eerie voice sounded behind Naruto. "This world is disappearing. Lost to the darkness. Find the keybearer. He will restore order throughout all the worlds." The figure in front of them wore a black cloak with the hood up. He walked forward and grabbed Sakura's wrist. She screamed as he pulled her away. Normally she would have pummeled the man to the ground, her fist wouldn't do what her head said. Where was Sasuke?

"Sakura!!!" Naruto cried.

"Naruto! Don't leave me!!" She tried to reach back to the blonde, who was trying desperately to reach her, but suddenly strange black creatures blocked his path, too many to fight through. But Naruto tried anyway. He used the Shadow Clone Jutsu over so many times, but the black things just kept growing more and more blocking each and every clone he made.

"Do not worry. She will be safe. You must find the keybearer and help him restore things the way they were. If you fail, your world will be lost. Forever. And remember, beware of the darkness."

Emerald green orbs met azure blue. "I'll find you! I promise! Believe it!" he called out to her. She simply nodded, too scared for words. The man then gave a swift hit to Sakura's neck, knocking her out and walked into a black portal. Naruto jumped to reach it in time, but found himself eating dirt as he rolled onto an empty spot.

"Naruto." The blonde turned to see Sasuke standing there. "We have to save Sakura."

"I know that!" Naruto yelled him. "You think I don't!?!?!" His pupils morphed into cat-like slits and his irises turned a darker blue.

Sasuke just smirked, which just made Naruto even madder. "We could use the darkness at our will to save her. It could work so well-"

"No!" The Uchiha looked shocked at his teammate's out burst. "We can't Sasuke!"

He smirked again. "Whatever you idiot. Never thought I'd hear you turn down a chance to save a friend though." A black portal suddenly appeared beside him.

"No!" Naruto yelled again. He ran at Sasuke, but the raven-haired boy knocked him unconscious. The last thing the blonde saw was his teammate walking into the portal, smirking back at him before the darkness took Naruto from consciousness and Sasuke from Konoha.

* * *

No. This will NOT be a NaruSaku fanfic. Naruto is worried for his TEAM MATE, not his GIRLFRIEND. I support NaruHina anyways. So how did it go? I know Sakura would probably not be that helpless, but can you imagine if one of your friends goes missing in the middle of a horrible storm, these strange creatures that you've never seen before show up, and some guy kidnaps you? Me? I'd be peeing in my pants. But anyways, you'll love the next part. I'll give you a breif summary.

Naruto wakes up in Traverse Town. He is amazed and wonders HOW THE HECK DID HE GET THERE!! He runs into a big guy with a gun... sword... thing... who defeats him (reason found out later), meets another ninja from no village who claims SHE'S the best ninja ever, and meets up with a guy with... a key? Confusion is just flying around, ain't it?

NEXT TIME: _Traverse Town?_

Until then, Sabrepaw


	2. Traverse Town?

Alright! Chapter 2!! This one was fun to write. Hope you enjoy!

**A Ninja and a Keybearer**

_Chapter 2: Traverse Town?_

Naruto groaned. He peeked open an eye and quickly shut it. _'I must of stayed out to late practicing,'_ he concluded. He tried opening his eyes again, slowly so the light wouldn't blind him. Finally he opened his eyes fully. What he saw though wasn't any training ground.

Looking around, Naruto saw that he was beside a huge door with a lock on it. He was propped up against the corner, like someone had put him there, but what he noticed the most was that there was a town. Neon lights blinked everywhere, but no one else was in sight. The blonde pushed himself up and started to walk around. "Wh- Where am I?" he asked aloud. Was it Genjutsu? For all he knew, it could be.

Suddenly, the ground seems to turn dark as the same strange creatures crawled up. Naruto could feel his anger rising up. It was because of these stupid things that he wasn't able to save Sakura! He'd make them pay for that. Naruto quickly made a hand seal and yelled out, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Suddenly ten Narutos appeared. Each clone quickly took a kunai and threw it at the black creatures. They dissolved when the weapons hit them square on. It didn't work so well as it would have with any other enemy, but unlike last time, he was ready. He threw another kunai and jumped back. The sudden explosion from the paper bomb wiped out most of the creatures, but there were still more.

Naruto dispatched all but one of his clones, which disappeared in a puff of smoke. He held out his hand and the clone started moving his hands around, channeling the chakra the real Naruto let out until it became a perfect blue sphere. The last clone disappeared and the blonde ninja held out his hand clutching the ball and screamed, "RASENGAN!!" The ball of chakra ran through the rest of the black things until there were none left.

Naruto sat down and panted after his strange battle. "What were those things?" he asked to no one in particular.

"Heartless," said a voice from above. He jumped, because he wasn't expecting an answer, and looked up. A young man with a scar running down his face between his eyes and shoulder length brown hair was watching him.

'_Almost looks like Iruka-sensei,' _Naruto mused. A sudden pain of sadness hit his heart, but he didn't show it in front of this stranger. "Who are you?" he demanded.

He just stared at him with that cocky indifferent look Naruto got almost all the time from Sasuke. Finally he spoke. "No one who really matters… But who are you? Where did you come from? And what are your intentions?"

Naruto smirked. This guy had guts. "Why should I tell you? For all I know, you could be one of Orochimaru's henchmen trying to get me to tell you where Sasuke is. Well, even I don't know. And your Genjutsu sucks!! You think I'm stupid enough to believe I'm in another town??"

The man frowned, clearly not understanding, but then his confusion was replaced slight annoyance. "If you don't tell me what I want to know, I'm afraid I might have to take you by force and interrogate you," he said while reaching behind his back.

Naruto saw the movement and got into a defensive stance, with one hand near his shuriken holder. "Ha! You can't do that! Only the Anbu can catch me and make me tell them what they want! And they're elite ninjas!!" Naruto lied. Suddenly he threw a shuriken at the man and hopped onto the nearest lamppost above his eyesight. Hopefully he would sense him. He was disappointed. At the last second, the man pulled out what looked like a sword with a gun handle for the hilt and blocked the incoming weapon. He then turned around and hit the lamppost Naruto was on. The blonde fell, but somehow landed on his feet. As he was unsteady, the man hit the hilt on the back of his head. _'Not again.' _And then he blacked out.

Squall Leonheart, or Leon as he preferred now, lifted the boy on his shoulder and carried him back to the hotel Yuffie was at the other "guest". "I gotta admit, kid," he murmured, "you're pretty good."

* * *

Sora looked over at the keyblade. His weapon. Yuffie the Great Ninja, a girl who had been there when he woke up, had just told him about everything. The heartless, the worlds, Traverse Town, and all the other weird things that had been happening to him recently.

"But… what do I have to do with all this?" he asked.

Yuffie was fixing to answer when a figure stood in the doorway. Walking into the light, Sora saw that it was the man who had wanted the keyblade. He quickly jumped up and grabbed said weapon. The man raised an eyebrow at him and then at Yuffie, who started giggling.

"Watch out Yuffie! He's the one who-!"

"Calm down, Sora," the ninja cut him off. "This is Leon… and someone else." She looked at Leon questionably, who shifted the boy on his shoulder. "Where's _he _from?" she asked.

"Dunno. Wouldn't answer. I found him fighting some heartless in the third district, but when I asked who he was and where he was from, he just yelled at me, accusing me of…" Leon thought for a moment, trying to remember correctly, "trying find out where… Sasuke was. Something like that. But he might be working for _her, _so I took him here. Had to knock him out though." He shrugged and set the boy down on bed beside Sora. "Oh yeah, sorry about earlier. Just wanted to get you away from the heartless."

Sora smiled. "It's all right." He looked down at the boy. He looked a couple of years younger than him and had spiky blonde hair. He was wearing an orange and blue jacket and orange pants. "Is he from another world too?"

"Probably. I've never seen him here before," Yuffie said, studying him.

"Oh yeah, he mentioned something about ninjas, Yuffie. This fell out of his pocket, too." Leon tossed an object at her.

Sora looked over. It was a headband, but with a piece of metal on the front. In the middle of the metal was a swirly looking sign. Looking closer, Sora figured out what it reminded him of. "Looks like a leaf."

"A leaf? Yeah it does look like it… I just can't remember anything about it though," Yuffie said, a puzzled look on her face. "What else did he say, Leon?"

Before he could answer, the boy groaned. "He's coming around. That was fast."

The boy opened his eyes slowly. He squinted at the three figures in front of him, trying to see who they were. He looked over at Leon and quickly jumped off the bed, but winced when the movement hurt his head. He reached a hand back and felt the lump Leon had given and winced again. "Hmph. Sakura should take some lessons in hitting from you," he mumbled. Suddenly he saw Sora and Yuffie staring at him. Looking at what was in Yuffie's hand he raised his eyebrows then glared, blue eyes flashing. Without warning, the boy charged at her in an attempt to get back his property, only to be stopped by a blade in his way. He quickly jumped back and threw a shuriken at Yuffie, but was surprised when she caught it with the quickness only a ninja possessed.

She studied the pointed star and looked back at the blonde boy. "So you_ are_ a ninja! Thought so."

He stared back, dumbfounded. "Either Kurenai-sensei put a Genjutsu on me, or I'm not in Konoha any more," Sora heard him mumble.

"Who are you?" Sora asked. The boy looked at him and glared, but suddenly, he smirked.

"It's common courtesy to introduce yourself before asking," he said.

Leon only snorted at the boy's rudeness, but Sora complied. "Alright then, I'm Sora, from Destiny Island."

The boy raised an eyebrow, but introduced his self anyway. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the next Hokage, believe it!"

"What's a Hokage?" Sora asked.

Naruto looked shocked. "You're kidding! You've never heard of the Hokage? The Fire Shadow? The greatest ninja in Konoha?"

"… No."

"Aha!!" All three boys jumped and stare at Yuffie, who had yelled out. "Now I know where you're from! You're from the Shinobi Nations aren't you?"

"No, duh…. I'm not in Konoha, are I?"

"Nope."

"Not even in the Fire Country?"

"Nope."

"… Anywhere in the Nations?"

"Nope."

Naruto fell on the floor and looked blankly at the wall. "Then… where… Where am I?"

"You're in Traverse Town," Leon said before Yuffie could answer him.

"Traverse Town?" All three of them nodded. "WHERE ON EARTH IS THAT!?"

Sora covered his ears. This kid had a big pair of lungs.

Yuffie just smiled at Naruto. "No where. You aren't even in your world. By the way, I'm Yuffie, the greatest ninja ever!!" she said, striking a pose.

Naruto seem like he was going to faint, but he snapped out of it when he heard the words _greatest _and _ninja _put together in one sentence_._

"No you're not!! I am! You think I spent my whole life letting everyone glare at me for no reason?! And it isn't even my fault the fourth sealed that stupid fox inside me! I'm _gonna_ become Hokage and get better than all of them!! That way they'll stop _disrespecting _me and look _up _to me!" He suddenly stopped, as if he had realized he'd said a big secret.

"Fox?" Leon asked.

--

Don't worry. Sora will get a bigger part. He'll be more interactive next chappie. :) Did I make Leon a little OOC? Sorry if I did. So anyways, you may be wondering why I'm using the english version of the jutsus and saying Naruto's name they way Japanese do. Well, I can barely remember any of the jutsus in their original Japanese form. All I remember really is Kage Bushin. So I'm sticking to the English, where I know I'll get it right. But I'm saying his name in Jap. version, because he's Japanese... Plus, it'll be funny when he meets Goofy. Think about.

Uh- oh. In his anger, Naruto just revealed his biggest secret. What will Leon, Yuffie, and Sora do when they find out he's a Jinchuriki(sp?), a demon host? How's Naruto gonna find that keybearer if he's in another world anyway?

NEXT TIME: _Secrets Revealed _


	3. Secrets Revealed

Hey, y'all! Sorry for the late update, but please remember. I have a life... that is very very busy right now. ; Enjoy!**  
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**A Ninja and a Keybearer**

_Chapter 3: Secrets Revealed_

Sakura hugged her knees to her chest and rocked back and forth. She was in a cell, but where, she had no idea. She looked over for the billionth time at the girl on the end of the cell. She had short red hair, a lavender mini skirt, and a white tank top. She appeared to be asleep, but Sakura couldn't wake her up no matter how hard she tried.

_'Why?' _she thought bitterly to herself, _'Why did I have to feel like something was wrong? Sasuke could have handled himself. After all, he_is_ Sasuke.' _When Sakura had realized that Sasuke wasn't at his house, she had freaked and went out searching for him like an idiot. Even Naruto wasn't that dumb… sometimes. And then once again, she was the helpless little girl that everyone had to save because she couldn't save herself. _'I swear that once I get out of here, I'll pester Lady Tsunade to teach me how to become strong, like her. After all, I can do quite a bit of healing jutsu,'_ she thought to herself, a little pride leaking through, but then another thought came to mind. _'But what good will that do me if I can't defend myself?'_ Silent tears rolled down her cheeks.

Suddenly, Sakura heard footsteps and wiped away her tears. It wouldn't do good to look weak. The man that had kidnapped her walked up to the bars and just stared at her… Well, she really didn't know what he was doing since his hood was up, but she just guessed. "I'm sorry it has to be like this, but I'm just trying to keep your safe," he told her.

Sakura just ignored the comment and turned to the girl. "Who's she and why won't she wake up?"

"Ah, I see you've found Kairi. Her heart is currently in… another vessel, but, if all goes well, she'll get it back."

The kunoichi was shocked. "Her… heart? Wouldn't she be dead then?"

"Not necessarily, no. See, where you're from, all you really know is that it is a vital organ that is needed to survive-"

"I also know that if it's punctured with, say, a kunai, the person would die," she said matter-of-factly, a hint of warning in her voice.

The man ignored her. "But, what you don't know, is that you have a spiritual heart too. One that is filled with either the light or dark, depending on how good or how evil you are."

"Then Orochimaru has a dark heart," Sakura commented. She received a chuckle. "What I don't get, though is who are you, why am I separated from my team mates, where are they, and WHERE THE HECK AM I?!"

The man just sighed. "My name," said pulling back his hood, "Is Ansem the Wise." He looked like a middle-aged man with blonde hair and a beard. "I took you from your friends because the order of the worlds depends on one, your loud blonde friend, Naruto I believe. Your other friend found a way to the darkness, but I think it can work in other… ways for me. You are separated because, if they really care about you, they will finish what they were destined to do, and, by caring for you, they will, in general, become stronger.

"As for their whereabouts, I can only tell you so much. They are separated from each other as well. Your friend, Sasuke, is with another boy that has fallen into the darkness, but I will say no more than that. Naruto is in a place called Traverse Town and is currently learning all he needs to know. And as for you my dear, you are at my mansion, in Twilight Town. Later, I will let you go out to the actual town and meet some friends, but you will mostly remain here. Do not worry. If all goes well, you will return home. In time."

And with that, he pulled his hood back up, and walked out of the room, leaving a very confused Sakura behind.

* * *

"Fox?" Leon asked.

Naruto's eyes grew wide when he realized that Leon had caught on to his secret. He was in trouble now. He wasn't sure what this guy could do, but he knew he had to get out of there. Fast. He desperately looked for an open window, a door, anything! Heck, he even tried the roof!

Sora looked at him and could tell what his intentions were. He quickly grabbed his keyblade, just as Naruto called out, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!!" Suddenly, there were five blondes where there had been only one before. Yuffie and Sora looked at him wide eyed, but Leon (who'd already seen the technique before) took his sword out and tried to wipe out the two to the nearest him. The Narutos jumped and dodged, each going one way or another. One ran for the headband in Yuffie's hand, but quickly puffed into a cloud of smoke when Sora hit it. Leon took out another one, as Yuffie stuck the headband in a pocket and punched another Naruto. Just then, Sora saw one of the blondes standing apart from the others… on the ceiling. "What the-!" Something whizzed by his face. The headband. Apparently the last clone had snuck around and grabbed the thing out of Yuffie's pocket and tossed it to the real one before being taken out by the kunoichi. Sora smirked._'Smart.'_

Naruto caught the headband, aware that they knew he was the real one, but before he could jump out the window, something else was heading his way. A keyblade. "Oh cra-!" The weird sword hit his right in the face. Naruto was half conscious after that. Losing control of his chakra, he fell to the ground, but before he could hit, Leon grabbed him. Still dazed, he was only vaguely aware of ropes tying him to the bed.

"That was tough," said Sora. "What's a jutsu?"

Yuffie answered him. "In his world, they use blades and such, but they also use something called chakra, which is sorta like magic. They use it to do 'jutsus' which are basically different techniques. I betcha he could explain it better than me, but oh well."

Naruto peeked open an eye. He had been listening to their conversation, but barely comprehending, until he figured out that they were talking about him. He felt the bonds holding him to the bed and struggled trying to break them, catching the attention of everyone in the room. Leon walked over and pushed his head down to the pillow. "What's this about a fox again?" he asked in his monotone voice.

Naruto sighed in defeat. "I'll tell you, but I want to be able to defend myself if I do," he said, pointedly looking at the ropes.

Leon looked with him and shook his head. "Not if it's gonna be like last time."

Naruto swore, but didn't protest again. "Alright. Let's see. About twelve years ago, a nine-tailed fox, Kyuubi, attacked my village. There was mass destruction everywhere and everyone almost gave up hope, but…" Naruto paused as if listening to something, and then he spoke again. "I'm not telling them that, idiot…. Whatever. And _he_ says there was a lot of killing, blood and destruction," he said, shrugging it off. This confused the group extremely. He then he continued with his narration. "So anyways, as I was saying, everyone had lost all hope until the Yondaime, the Fourth Hokage, showed up atop of Gamabunta. That's the boss toad by the way, he's very rude. He sealed Kyuubi with a forbidden jutsu, at the cost of his life, into a newborn baby. Me." Naruto glared at all of them. "And, no, I am _not_ the nine tails. He is just the annoying voice in my head. There, question answered. Now... UNTIE ME!!"

He was ignored. Every person in the room was deep in their own thoughts. '_How can any kid go through so much at such a young age?_' though Sora. _'He can't be older than thirteen! No wonder he wants to show everyone up!'_

_'So much power in one tiny squirt?' _Yuffie mused. _'It'd be fun to watch him grow up.'_

Leon just folded his arms and stared at Naruto._ 'If the heartless ever got their hands on this kid, we'd all be in trouble. Until his world comes back, we'll have to keep him here.' _

Naruto noticed Leon and focused all hi anger on him. "I know what you're thinking," he said aloud, snapping everyone out of their thoughts. "You're thinking something a long the lines of 'He's too dangerous!' 'We should get rid of him!' or 'Evil monster!' Yeah, yeah. I've heard 'em all. I'd leave and all, but… I'm a bit tied up."

"You are not to leave this building," Leon said suddenly.

"WHAT!!" Naruto screamed, making everyone cover their ears. "I can't stay here! I gotta find Sakura and the jerk Sasuke!! I promised her! I made a promise and I keep my word." Determination shown defiantly in Naruto's eyes. He couldn't reach his kunais, but… Naruto tensed and focused on the rope, then put all his strength in the bonds that held him. Sora stared in amazement as the ropes snapped. "Nice staying you and all, but I really gotta go," the blonde boy said before jumping out the window and into the square and seemed to disappear.

"Sora," Leon said suddenly, turning to the keybearer. "You must find him and bring him back. If the heartless take control of his heart, there is no telling what will happen, what with that fox sealed in him. He has a strong heart. The kinds the heartless like. Now go." Sora nodded and ran out the door and after Naruto.

* * *

All, right. This might have a been a bit confusing. This takes place somewhat before Sasuke leaves. I know Sakura's not supposed to know any healing jutsus... let's just pretend she's studied some after she saw Tsunade heal Sasuke and Kakashi... The old lady just taught her some more advanced stuff later, since she was studying things that would only heal scrapes and bruises and such. :)

In the next chapter, Sora finds Naruto surrounded by heartless... again. He helps defeat them, but when he tells Naruto that he has to come back with him, Naruto refuses, explaining his situation. Sora, who understands completely, is unsure whether or not he should take Naruto back to Leon or whether they should work together to save their precious people. Also, they meet some rather unusual characters who are, in fact, looking for "the Key". Can you guess who?

NEXT TIME: _An Alliance Made_


	4. An Alliance Made

Hey y'all!! How yah doin'? Here's chapter 4.**  
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**A Ninja and a Keybearer**

_Chapter 4: An Alliance Made_

Sora ran through the streets. This was harder than he thought. You'd think anyone wearing 'Kill Me!' orange would be easy to spot. Not true. He ran to the first district and met up with a bunch of people he had seen before. He'd asked every person he could find and ended up with the same answer. No. Might as well try once more. Sora walked up a young woman wearing a teal skirt and a white blouse. "Have you seen a little blonde kid around here? He's wearing an orange and blue jacket and orange pants."

She thought for a moment and the spiky haired youth was fixing to walk away with a suppressed sigh, when she spoke up. "Actually," she said, looking back at Sora, "I did someone that matches your description. He was very loud."

Sora grinned. "That's him! Thanks!" He paused, realizing he was forgetting something. "… Do you know which way he went?" he asked sheepishly.

The woman chuckled. "He ran over and tried to open the door to the third district. You know, the one that's locked? When he found that out, he yelled about needing to get out of here or something of the like. Then he ran down the alley. He might still be there. I haven't seen him come out yet."

Sora said, "Thanks again," and ran off in the direction she had pointed out. Before Naruto even came into view, Sora heard the loud blonde.

"YOU STINKIN' CREEPS!! GET AWAY FROM ME YOU SLUGS!!"

Hurrying around the bend, Sora saw that the Kyuubi kid was surround by a group of heartless. Holding out his hand, he felt the keyblade flash in instant, ready to wield. Sora charged straight for the nearest heartless. He mentally thanked Riku for all the lessons in sword fighting as he sliced through another heartless.

Sora glanced at the blonde ninja. He had made about ten clones and was attacking any heartless that got in his way. Although he couldn't tell which one was the real one, he had to admire the younger boy's handy work. Each clone was armed with a chakra-enhanced kunai and was tearing mercilessly through the ranks of heartless. Sora turned his attention back to his fight as a soldier heartless jumped, trying to gain an advantage over him. Sora thrust his keyblade up and watched as it dissolved to dust before getting started on the next one. Several times he heard loud blasts and could only guess what Naruto was up to.

The said blonde had taken out his explosive tags again and so far taken out a wall. Not to mention many of the little black alien things. One of the heartless slashed its claws into his back, tearing through clothes and skin. But it became extremely confused when its prey poofed into a log with marks of where he had slashed it. The heartless didn't have much more time to think as a foot made contact with its skull. Naruto grinned his trademark foxy grin. His smile was suddenly wiped off his face as a somewhat bigger heartless appeared.

Naruto made four more clones quickly. Jumping on one's back his launched himself into the air and watched as his clones tripped the big creature. "U-zu-ma-ki!" the clones shouted. The Genin finished the name by bringing his foot down yet again, flattening his opponent. "Naruto Rendan!!"

Both boys sat amid the rubble caused from the explosions. The spiky haired kids looked at each other and burst out laughing. "That was some serious butt-whoopin'!" Naruto yelled, showing his signature foxy grin.

Sora nodded and grinned right back at him, but then remembered what he was supposed to do. "Naruto, you have to come with me," he said. The Leaf Nin's smile faded and his eyes lost the sparkle in them.

"No." he said after a few moments of silence. "I can't."

"Why?" Sora asked. He was well aware of the promise Naruto said he had made, but other than that, he knew nothing.

"I…" Naruto paused, wondering how much to tell him. "I have to find someone."

"Who? And why do you have to find him?"

The blonde ninja sighed and started his story. "It was very stormy in Konoha last I remember. Sakura, Sasuke, and I were heading out of the Hokage building. I woke up in the middle of the night suddenly and looked out the window. I saw someone running in the street. I thought they were crazy, but then I saw that it was Sakura." Naruto sighed.

"Sakura may be a lot of things, short-tempered, destructive, angry, but one thing she isn't is crazy. She almost always has a reason for doing something. So naturally, I ran after her. She saw me and asked where Sasuke is. I have no idea why she even cares about that idiot, much less why she was looking for him, but that's not the point.

"By that time, the storm had gotten extremely bad, and I was kinda creeped out. But what was even scarier was when this guy stepped out of this black portal thingy. He grabbed Sakura, and stopped me by sending those… heartless?" Sora nodded. "Well, he told me that if I wanted to restore my world, I'd have to find and help the keybearer."

That brown haired boy straightened suddenly when he heard this. Naruto took note and resolved to ask later. "Sasuke, the jerk, showed up just then and told me that we could use darkness to find Sakura. When I refused, he knocked me out and I ended up here, fighting Leon." Naruto nodded, showing that he was done.

Sora looked at the ninja with wide eyes. His story was just like his own! How could he tell this boy he had to stay here!? And not only that, he was looking for him!!

"Naruto, you don't have to worry about finding the keybearer," he told him.

"Why?" Naruto glared accusingly at Sora. "You gonna make sure I stay in this stupid town?"

Sora shook his head. "Nope. Because _I'm_ the keybearer." The Kyuubi host just stared at the older boy.

"But… what… when… HUH?!"

Sora grinned at the blonde's confusion. "Tell you what. If it's so important for you to find me, I'll let you come on my big… journey. I'll smuggle you along. Leon won't know a thing," he winked, bringing out Naruto's signature grin.

Just then a noise sounded from above. "Yeaaahhhhhhhgggg!!" Looking up, Naruto was just quick enough to escape the two strange figures that fell on top of Sora.

The said boy, in daze, was spread out on the ground. On top of him were what looked like a duck and a dog… that were wearing clothes… and had weapons. They both looked up from their place on the ground and stared at the outstretched hand that held the keyblade. In union, they cried out, "THE KEY!!"

* * *

Sasuke tried not to show the annoyance in his face. This was worse than when Naruto challenge him to a fight! It was worse than Sakura trying to gain his attention! It was even worse than the rabid fan girls chasing him everywhere he went!! Well, almost. He was standing at the front of a hallway with an elgant stairway going up. The boy with silver hair stood in front of him.

_He_ had brought him here. It was all _his_ fault that he had to wait. Sasuke decided to glare at him until whoever this all-powerful lady he was supposed to meet came. The boy obviously felt the tension in the air and tried to break the silence by starting a conversation. "You'll like her. She can give you all the power you want and more!"

"Hmph," was all the reply he got. It would have to take a whole lot more to get the raven haired boy talking. Just as Sasuke was about to express his hatred of waiting, a green light glowed eerily. And with a blinding light, a lady stood in the middle of the hallway.

She wore a long black cloak with the ends cut to look like flames. Her hair was up in two tight peaks, so it looked like horns, and her light green face was beautiful, but any fool could see that she was dangerous. She smiled coldly when she the Uchiha. "Welcome, Sasuke," she said, her voice sounded sweet, but the raven haired boy could detect the slight bit of poison in it. "My name is Malificent."

--

Okay, I have a question. This idea suddenly popped into my head one day and I was all like, "Ooo!! That's cool!!" But I want to know if it'd be a good idea. What if, while Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Naruto are traveling the world, they run into some of the Naruto gang? If I do do this, I'd only do about 6 or 7. And if you'd like to read this, tell me who you'd want to see, and where.

Donald and Goofy come into the story and explain that they're looking for the keybearer, too! They say they have a way to get from world to world, but before anymore is said, a huge metal heartless comes into the scene! The four are going to have to work together to fight it. Will they sucede? Will Naruto be able to get away from Leon's watching eyes?

_NEXT TIME: The Heartless Boss_


	5. The Heartless Boss

Sorry for the wait. I've been really busy lately.

(Should have put this up earlier. Sorry! ') **Disclaimer: **I DON'T own Naruto OR Kingdom Hearts. Kishimoto and Square Equinex (sp?) does. :D

I also want to thank all my reviewers and readers! This is close to being my most popular story. Thanks for reading this!! You make me feel happy! 3

**A Ninja and a Keybearer**

_Chapter 5: The Heartless Boss_

"THE KEY!!" the duck and the dog shouted in union.

Naruto hastily pulled a kunai out, ready for anything, and asked in a threatening voice "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

The duck got up first, seeing as he was on the top of the pile, and turned to the blonde, obviously annoyed. "Who're _you_ to talk to _us_ that way, you…" the rest of what he said wasn't comprehendible due to the fact that whatever the duck said was a mix of quacking and yelling… but mostly quacking.

The dog… thing got up and looked down at Naruto, seeing as he was _very_ tall. "Ayuck… sorry 'bout that. The name's Goofy, captain of the royal guard and this is Donald Duck, the royal magician," he said holding down a now smoldering duck. "Nice tah meetcha!"

Naruto fell to the ground, completely surprised. Okay, maybe he _wasn't_ ready for anything. "Magic?" he sputtered out. By that time, Sora had snapped out of his daze and gotten up. He smiled at Donald and Goofy and pointed to himself. "My name's Sora and this is-!"

"Uzumaki Naruto," the blonde finished.

Goofy scratched his head. "That's a funny name… Uzumaki."

Naruto fumed at this, along with Donald. "No, you idiot! That's his last name!! Just look at the way he's dressed!" At this both Naruto and Goofy looked at his orange jacket and pants.

"What's wrong with my clothes!!" he yelled.

Donald just rolled his eyes. "He's obviously from another world. Probably a ninja, if the knife says anything."

Naruto looked at the kunai he was still clutching and glared at the duck. "Kunai," he said flatly. _'The stupid jerk's got that same I'm-smarter-than-you -idiot attitude as Sasuke!'_

Sora, feeling the tension in the air quickly broke it. "Yeah, well, as you can see, I'm the keybearer. Naruto here is the container of-," he broke off suddenly when he saw Naruto's pleading blue eyes. The Kyuubi host didn't want to share his secret just yet.

"Container of what?" Donald asked impatiently, eyeing the blonde with suspicion.

"… Of great skill!" Sora finished quickly, adding a grin he hoped was convincing.

The magician paused and glared at Naruto uncertainly. "Whatever," he muttered out. He'd have to keep an eye on the blonde brat. Something about him just wasn't right.

Naruto on the other hand, mentally sighed. _'The duck took the bait.' _But before anything else could be said, a series of large walls rose around them, blocking off any possible exit.

The group looked around in confusion. What was going on? It wasn't until a moment later that Naruto, with his heightened senses (due to ninja training _and_ being the host of the Kyuubi) felt the unease you get right before a battle, followed closely by everyone else. Everyone quickly pulled out their weapon. Sora held up the keyblade, a staff appeared in Donald's hand in a flash of light, Goofy took off the shield that was strapped to his back, and Naruto took out a kunai and got is chakra ready to put into hand seals lest he'd need to create jutsus.

No one was disappointed with their assumptions, for at that exact moment, a large heartless, made fully of armor that wasn't necessarily attached to it, jumped in front of them, making the ground quake underneath their feet.

They'd found the heartless boss.

* * *

Sasuke followed Maleficent down the hallway. He gazed at the dark walls and his fingers twitched towards the bag at his waist that held his ninja tools in anxiety. Although he'd never admit it, this place gave him the creeps.

Looking back, he noticed that the boy with silver hair, Riku, only showed a slight hint on his face that he was nervous at all. _'Either this guy's really good at hiding his emotions,'_ the Uchiha thought, _'or he's used to it.'_

With nothing better to do, and to sooth his nerves, Sasuke thought back to his last night in Konoha.

_-Flashback-_

He couldn't sleep. He lay in his bed, staring up at the dark ceiling. Maybe it was the anxiousness he got from the coming storm, after all, anyone with half a brain could see that this was going to be a bad one.

Sasuke watched as the rain started falling outside his window, faster and faster as time went by. It was times like this that brought those painful memories back. Running into the house only to find his mother and father dead and Itachi standing over them. It pained his heart every time he thought about it, but he couldn't push the unbidden memories out of his head. He saw his aunt and uncle, cruelly slaughtered by the one he had once called brother.

Eventually a crack of lightning lit up the night sky, illuminating everything in the house. It was at that moment that he saw him. It just a slight movement for just a second, but Sasuke still saw it. There was a man in his hallway. _'He must of snuck in while I was thinking!'_ the Uchiha thought bitterly.

Silently, he stepped out of the bed and grabbed a kunai. Unless he had a good reason, this intruder wouldn't live to see the next sunrise. Slowly, silently, like a tiger going in for the kill. Then suddenly…

_**CREAK!!**_

Sasuke mentally slapped himself for forgetting about the squeaky step right in front of his doorway. _'Dang! Gonna have to rely on my speed for this one,'_ the last Uchiha thought as the stranger turned toward the noise.

Lightning flashed again, allowing him to get a quick look at the stranger. He had shoulder length silver hair and aquamarine eyes. Sasuke ran quickly towards him, grabbed the intruder's hands, pulled them behind his back, and held a kunai to his throat. "What are you doing in my house?" Sasuke whispered dangerously.

His captive just smirked, ticking the Uchiha slightly. "You really are good. But of course, he told me that much." In a flash, an odd looking sword appeared in the boy's (after all, he looked to be just a few years older than Sasuke himself) hand. The blade looked like a red wing that would belong to a bat, while the hilt was black and pointed at the end. All in all, it looked very weird to Sasuke.

The boy flicked the sword so it was held against his opponent's throat and grabbed the wrist with the keyblade, giving another smirk as they switched positions. Sasuke could feel a vein throbbing as he saw that smirk again. Was this how Naruto felt?

"I'm only going to say this once," the boy whispered in his ear. "A man by the name of Orochimaru has joined Lady Maleficent, a very powerful spell caster." A flash in Sasuke's onyx eyes was all that showed of the recognition of the man's name. Of course he remembered Orochimaru. His neck suddenly started itching where the curse was at the sound of that name.

The boy continued. "She, along with others, controls the darkness. When he joined her, Orochimaru told my lady that he knew someone that could help them even further reach their goal to control the heartless. He said that it was a young ninja by the name of Uchiha Sasuke. I was sent by Maleficent to bring you a message. If you wish to become stronger, fall to the darkness. To do so, you must join us."

The boy went on further to explain to the Uchiha about using the portals. Though he showed no emotion on his face, Sasuke held on to every word. This woman promised him power. Maybe enough to defeat Itachi! He knew he'd probably have to deal with Orochimaru, but still… strength! He could outsmart that snake, anyways. After all, he was known as a prodigy, the rookie of the year, _and_ the only one to survive the Uchiha Massacre, although a tiny voice in the back of his mind reminded him that his brother had _let_ him live.

Maybe he _should_ go with this strange boy.

The said boy smirked again when he realized that his words were sinking in. "I will let you decide whether to except or not. If you do, use the portal to go to Hollow Bastion, Maleficent's home." As he turned to go, he stopped and gave Sasuke a half look over his shoulder. "You know, you remind me a lot like myself."

_-End Flashback-_

Sasuke could have gone for awhile, just thinking about that storm. Taking the boy's advice and starting to pack, walking out of his house just before Sakura entered to check in on him, running into that guy who had made him that peculiar offer, Sakura being kidnapped, running into to Naruto, and ending up here.

But before he could brood on these thoughts, Maleficent stopped. "We're here," she said in that cool uncaring voice, just before opening a door that led to a dark room. Inside, Sasuke could barely see the silhouettes of quite a few people. The Uchiha was suddenly wondering if this was such a good idea.

* * *

Everyone tensed as the giant heartless drew closer to the small group of four. Then, suddenly without warning, it attacked. Naruto brought his kunai up to guard, while his new comrades did likewise.

Sora rushed the heartless, keyblade in hand, and did a series of hits and strikes. It was obvious that Sora was no stranger when it came to swordplay. Goofy threw his shield like a discus, leaving deep scratches against the heartless' armor before returning to its owner. A sudden shout at his side took Naruto's attention to the other two fighters. "THUNDER!!" Just seconds after, lightning bolts rained down on their opponent.

It was at the moment that the blonde noticed something. Something _very_ important. "HEY! I WANNA FIGHT, TOO!!" He made a familiar hand seal and cried out, "Kage Bunshin Jutsu!!" Four Narutos appeared and looked at the original expectantly, waiting for an order. "All right everyone! Basic procedure! Here we go!"

Two of the Naruto ran around to the other side of the heartless and ran for his legs, while the other two did the same on the opposite side, trying to kick their opponent in the air. The original Naruto jumped onto one of the clone's back and was airborne.

Donald and Goofy were speechless at the performance, but Sora, who had seen it already, hit the heartless again and again at his arm. If he could just get rid of the limbs, then it would be all the more easier to get to the head and finish it off. He looked up quickly to see Naruto coming down fast with his leg extended and a cocky grin plastered on his face.

Sora then noticed something that was different than last time he saw this move. The opponent wasn't in the air heading towards Naruto's expected kick and the clones had been hit when the big heartless swung his arms, making them disappear into puffs of smoke. Looking back up, Sora noticed that the blonde's smile was gone and replaced with a look on his face that just said, 'Oh crap' all over it. But unfortunately for the shinobi, he was falling too fast to change course and get out of the way.

Foot met head with a sickening bang. Naruto fell to the ground clutching his leg in pain, screaming out curses, which would have extremely comical if they weren't in the middle of a battle.

Naruto hissed in pain. "Stupid metal jerk, stupid armor, stupid kidnapper, stupid Sasuke! Stupid, stupid, stupid!" he muttered.

"_**Yes. We have already established that everything besides me is stupid, especially you. Now will you just get up and fight, wimp?" **_a familiar voice growled in the back of his mind.

"Stupid fox," the ninja said, a little louder than before. Donald, being a bit closer to the blonde than anyone else, heard his peculiar statement, but shrugged it off for the moment. He had the other pressing matters.

With a little bit of Kyuubi's healing power, Naruto stood up. He was mad. Very mad. He grabbed a kunai out of his pouch and attached an exploding note to it. "Sora! Get out of the way!" he yelled.

Sora, seeing the boy wrap a piece of paper around his kunai, quickly complied. The blonde ninja threw the knife and hopped back. Donald and Goofy, seeing Sora jump away, followed his example, just seconds before the heartless blew apart, its armor in different parts of the battlefield.

"That was awesome Naruto!" Sora exclaimed. The blonde just grinned and rubbed his finger under his nose in response.

But the victory was short lived. As Sora, Donald, and Naruto started walking away, Goofy took a quick glance back to see all the damage. And that was when he saw it.

"Uh, guys?" he said tentatively, "We have a problem." The trio turned back to see what Goofy wanted and froze. The heartless had started to reassemble itself.

Sora looked at it with shock and weariness. Donald scowled, and Naruto voiced everyone's thoughts. "YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!"

* * *

Meh... This was easily one of the longest chapters I've ever written. But I will write even longer one!! Is determined

How was the battle scene, Lithius? I know it's not as good as yours are, but I don't usually write that many.

Fighting the heartless again? How much better can things get for Naruto? Sakura's having an okay time... if you count being bullied by Twilight Town's "defenders". Don't even mention Sasuke! First that stupid silver haired kid comes to get him, then he meets up with Maleficent, NOW he's got to deal with Orochimaru!!

NEXT TIME: _The Second Time Around_


	6. The Second Time Around

Yeah. This is late. I know. But the flying monkeys took the first half of it and I had to get it away from the Wicked Witch of the West. :D (Lol! NOT REALLY!! I had writers block on some of it) But hey! It's very very long! Possibly the longest chapter I've ever written.

**Disclaimer: **I DON'T own Naruto OR Kingdom Hearts. Kishimoto, Disney, and Square Equinex (sp?) does. :)

**A Ninja and a Keybearer**

_Chapter 6: The Second Time Around_

Sakura strolled around, gazing at her new surroundings. That Ansem guy finally had the sense enough to let her get some fresh air. It was so _stuffy_ in that cell!

The pink haired kunoichi just huffed and walked through the woods that led to the town. Ansem had told her that there were children her age there. Personally, Sakura really hoped so. She was tired of just looking at that Kairi girl, waiting for her to get up and talk to her.

Putting a hand over her eyes so the sun wouldn't shine through her eyes, the Konoha nin found herself walking through a hole in a brick wall. Sakura stared at the sudden change in scenery.

Where there had been giant trees before, now giant buildings stood in their place. Posters lined the walls about different upcoming events. One such poster said something about a "Struggle" coming up. _'That actually sounds a little fun,'_ Sakura thought. She passed by a bulletin board with odd jobs posted on it. A perfect chance to get a little extra cash. But what really caught her eye was the group standing by one of the Struggle posters.

'_Two boys and one girl,'_ Sakura noticed. _'Like us.' _The first boy was looking at the poster with his undivided attention, provided with an imaginary fight. He had dusty blonde hair that, in Sakura's opinion, looked like he'd just run it throw a high tech blow dryer. He wore camo cargo pants, a sleeveless black shirt, and an olive green vest. The boy seemed to be in charge of the group.

The second boy was a bit chubbier than the other and had spiky black hair held out of his eyes by a black and white headband. Over jeans and a white shirt, he wore a jersey with the words "Dog Street", and a blue bandana around his neck. He rolled his eyes at the first boy while eating a blue Popsicle.

The girl had brown haired that stuck out a little at the top. She wore an orange and white floral tank top and khaki capris. She giggled sweetly as she watched the antics of her two friends.

Sakura smiled at the happy group. She missed her team so much. She missed everything. Naruto's loud voice yelling out his dreams, Sasuke's quiet approval when she did something right, even Kakashi-sensei being an hour late everyday. Slowly the smile fell and her eyes drifted to the ground.

"Hey are you alright?" someone asked in front of her. Sakura instantly snapped to attention, letting any emotion that had shown on her face disappear. Looking up, she saw the same group as before, each with a worried look on their face.

"What?" was the intelligent remark that came from her mouth.

The blonde boy sighed. It was obviously him who had asked the question. "I said, are you alright?"

"Uh, yeah! Fine! I'm fine. Just a little lonely." That wasn't technically lying… right?

The boy gave her a disbelieving look and was about to say something, but the girl stepped in between them. "Hayner, don't be so mean," she said, giving the boy a glare.

Turning back to Sakura, she smiled and said, "Don't mind this bonehead. Hayner just thinks the world belongs to him." The girl giggled as she pushed the boy away. "You must be new here. My name's Olette, that's Pence, and you've already met Hayner," she said, gesturing to each in turn.

"Hello. My name's Haruno Sakura. And I guess you could say I'm new here. I've been living in that big mansion for some time," she said, remembering how Ansem had told her about the other worlds and how they needed to be kept a secret.

That instantly got Pence's interest, momentarily forgetting his ice cream. "Really? We all thought it was abandoned!"

The kunoichi just nodded and said, "Well, tell you the truth it mostly is. I'm living there with… my grandfather. But he doesn't really like company, and only just now let me go out." Which_ was_ true. Ansem himself had told her he didn't want anyone coming there. Sakura inwardly sighed with relief when she saw the curious gleam in Pence's eyes disappear.

"But anyways," she said quickly, trying to change the subject, "what's this about a Struggle?"

Hayner grinned. "It's only the most popular sport around! Every year, we hold a competition among the finalists. The preliminaries are tomorrow, and I'm entering," he said proudly, jabbing a finger at his chest.

Sakura brightened immediately. "That does sound like fun! I think I'll enter!"

Olette and Pence looked at each other and exchanged glances. "Um…" the brown haired girl started, but was cut off by Hayner's laughing.

"You? A girl? Enter the struggle match? Ha!" By that time, the dusty blonde was rolling on the ground laughing. This only made Sakura's temper rise.

"And what, pray tell, is wrong with a girl fighting?" she snapped.

Pence answered her. "Well, first off, they think that girls don't fight that good, which is mostly true around here. And just looking at you… well let's just say you don't look like the fighting type," he said, glancing at Sakura's short pink hair for a moment.

The Konoha nin tried to calm herself down and consider the reasons they said what they did. _'I'll admit. I used to spend much more time on my looks than my jutsus. And they probably think I'm some kind of girly girl,'_

'_**Like that pig, Ino!!'**_ Inner Sakura yelled.

'_And I _am_ a worse fighter than my teammates.' _ She countered.

'_**But I bet I could beat ALL of their butts!! Shannaro!!'**_

Putting on a fake smile, Sakura turned to Hayner. "Then how about a match, you and me, to show you I can fight as well as any boy."

The blonde only smirked. "You're on!"

* * *

The Heartless armor floated for a moment, then the arms and legs rotated into place closely followed by the quickly spinning head. It stood there for a moment, seeming to wait on its opponents. But just as the group was getting ready for a quick attack, it stomped its foot, almost impatiently it seemed, sending shocking waves through the ground, knocking everyone down.

Naruto, being most short tempered, jumped to his feet and charged it, but just as he was closing in for a solid kick, the heartless spun in a circle, flailing its arms, hitting anything in its path. And unfortunately for the young ninja, that's just where he was. Goofy and Donald followed the blonde's flight down to the ground.

Sora meanwhile waited until the heartless stopped spinning and started a string of well-aimed hits with his keyblade. When the heartless went to try and stomp on the keyblade master, the spiky haired boy just jumped higher and aimed for the head. "Take that!" he yelled when the armor took a step back and reached for its head.

Hearing a groan behind him, Sora saw Naruto dragging himself to his feet. _'Huh! This guy's got guts!'_ he silently complimented.

Donald snickered as he watched the blonde stumble a couple times, dizzy. Finally he relented and yelled out, _"HEAL!_"

Naruto just looked in awe as little leaves floated around him, giving the same feeling he felt when Kyuubi healed him, only this felt more… gentle. The look of awe was replaced with one of annoyance. "WHY COULDN'T YAH DO THAT _BEFORE_!!" he yelled.

"Ungrateful brat," the duck wizard muttered under his breath. "C'mon Goofy!"

"Okay, Donald!" the captain of the guard said, saluting. The duck and dog ran together, step for step, weapons in hand. Goofy held the shield to his face and charged the big heartless, ramming into its leg, shattering it to pieces. Donald brought his staff up and quacked, _"THUNDER!" _Sending blasting lighting bolts at one of the arms.

With one leg and one arm, the heartless seemed unable to fight. But any who thought that were sorely mistaken. The armored head flew off the shoulders and spun around the whole body, knocking its opponents to the ground, following shortly after with a large jumping stomp.

Getting back up Naruto growled. This was getting annoying. "He's dead, believe it," he muttered, bringing up a familiar hand seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Instantly, ten Narutos filled up the empty space around him.

"Alright guys," Sora said, a wave of command emitting from his voice. "Let's bring this guy down! Naruto, you and your clones go on either side and try to get him the air again. One of his arms are missing so it should be easier."

"Hai!" the shinobi saluted.

Sora continued. "Donald you blast him with your lightning to make him lose control for a couple minutes."

"Alright," the duck quacked.

"Goofy, you fly your shield like a boomerang and try to take out the arm or leg."

"Okie dokie, Sora!" he grinned.

The keybearer smirked. "As for me, I'm gonna go for the head. Ready!" he yelled. "Go!"

Naruto, whose job was first, ran at him from all angles, allowing no escape. When the heartless tried to swat its annoying opponent, the clones jump back to avoid getting hit. "Now!" The real Naruto yelled. All ten clones rushed the armor heartless, tripping the leg, and then sending him flying upwards with a good kick to the bottom.

Donald, seeing the blonde finish his part, brought his mage staff up and quacked out, _"THUNDER!" _Lightning bolts rained on the heartless, making it smoke, seemingly numbing it.

With a mighty swing, Goofy let his shield fly, hitting the arm, flying by, and hitting it again on the way back, destroying it.

Sora, seeing his chance as the heartless fell, jumped up, keyblade ready to strike, and, putting all his strength into that one swing, hit the heartless in the head, cracking over the helmet.

The now dead heartless fell to ground in front of four panting fighters. What was left of the armor dissolved, leaving nothing behind, but a freaked out Naruto. "Wha- what the heck was that!?"

"You four just killed the boss," a monotone voice said from above. The group looked up to see Leon and Yuffie watching them.

"So what are we gonna do now?" Sora asked.

"Now you guys have to travel to different worlds and lock them so the heartless can no longer get in and destroy them," Yuffie said, giggling.

"Alright!" Naruto yelled, jumping up and down.

"Not you," Leon stated, matter-of-factly.

"What?"

The brown haired man just sighed. "I think you probably know why. If the heartless ever got a hold of you, or_ that_ thing to be more precise, you could be a danger to us all."

Naruto's eyes went downcast. "I knew it," he mumbled. "Everyone always judges me because of him."

Sora rushed forward. "Wait a minute, Naruto! Maybe we can-!" but by the time he reached to the spot, the blonde ninja was gone.

Donald turned to Leon. "So what is this _thing_ that's apparently so dangerous about the blondie?"

The gunblade wielder just turned and looked at him. "I think that's something you should ask him." And with that he started walking away, Yuffie close on his heels. "Sora," Leon said over his shoulder. "Go with them. They too have been looking for the wielder of the keyblade. You'll need them to accomplish your destiny."

Yuffie looked back to make sure Sora and the others were out of earshot, then turned to Leon. "You could have been nicer you know," she lectured.

"I know," he said. "But better to hear the truth like it is than some feel-good lie." The kunoichi sighed in response to her friend.

Sora looked at the ground. He was not in a happy mood. First, he gets separated from his home. Second, he loses his best friends. And third, he couldn't keep his promise to Naruto about letting him come along.

Goofy saw him frowning. "What's wrong, Sora?" he asked, genuine concern showing in his eyes.

"… Riku… and Kairi… What if I never see them again?"

Donald smiled. "Of course we'll find them, too!"

His tall companion leaned down and whispered in his ear, "Really?"

The duck rolled his eyes and leaned over, whispering, "Who knows. But we need him to find the king." In a louder voice he spoke to the keyblade master. "But you can't come along looking like that," he said, referring to Sora's downcast face. "No frowning! No sad faces! This boat runs on happy faces!"

"Yeah! You gotta look funny! Like us!" Goofy inputted, earning a shove from Donald.

Sora sighed, leaned his head down… and came up with one of the strangest looking smiles ever. "Cheeeeeese!"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Ahyuck! That's one silly face!"

And with that, everyone burst into fits of laughter.

"Alright," Donald said, wiping the tears from his eyes. "I say we freshen up a little bit at the hotel before we start traveling."

"Okay, Donald," Goofy smiled.

Sora yawned. "No objections here."

The trio departed together, getting ready for the great adventure that was sure to come their way. Little did they know, they were being watched.

* * *

A number shadowy figures stood around a table with the current scene happening in the middle of it.

"That little squirt took down the giant heartless!" one shadow exclaimed.

"Such is the power of the keyblade. The child's strength is not his own," another explained.

"Turn him into a heartless! That will settle things quick enough," a third said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

A fourth growled out his complaint. "Those two are the kings lackeys! A couple of bilge rats by the look of them!" This earned a cackle from the shadow next to him.

"You're no prize, yourself."

"SHUT UP YOU-!"

"Enough!" said an upcoming figure. "The blade has chosen him. Will he conquer the darkness… or will it devour him?" A pale light shined on the figure, revealing it to be Maleficent. "Either way, he could be quite useful."

The shadow who had spoke second piped up. "What I want to know is what sort of power that blonde brat holds that could be so dangerous?"

"Yeah, you're right! Even that Leon guy forbade him to go!" the third figure exclaimed.

"I can answer that," someone said from the back of the room. Turning, everyone saw a pale man with long black hair. He was dressed in a cream colored tunic tied with a big purple bow that looked like a pretzel.

Maleficent smirked. "This is Orochimaru," she said, introducing the man. "He just so happens to come from the same world the boy comes from. If anyone would know anything, I'm sure he would." The woman turned to Orochimaru. "Would you care to enlighten us?"

The former Sannin got up from leaning against the wall and walked to the table. Opening his eyes, everyone could see that they strangely resembled that of a snake's, amber with slitted pupils. "As Maleficent has told you," he started, "I come from the same world as the brat. In fact I used to live in the same village. But I left years ago. It was too weak for my liking.

"But back on subject. Twelve or thirteen years ago, a nine tailed fox; the Kyuubi as he's known in our world, attacked that village. He caused much destruction to everything, even with the many ninjas fighting him. And to make a long story short, everyone was defeated. But then the Yondaime Hokage, the fourth of our village leaders, took a newborn babe and sealed the Kyuubi into it.

"The fox now resides in a seal on Uzumaki Naruto's stomach. Although it's really not supposed to happen, I believe that the seal is weakening. In fact I saw it. When the boy's emotions get out of control, a bit of the fox's chakra leaks out. And even with just a little of this demonic chakra, his strength becomes incredible, as well as his speed. He is able to stand through almost any attacks without so much as whimpering in pain. I was barely able to survive with my life. And from a mere child! Such is the power of the Kyuubi."

Everyone was quiet, thinking over what they had just heard. Maleficent spoke up. "Then, if we were to capture this boy and turn him into a heartless…"

"We'd have unimaginable power," Orochimaru finished. "In fact, it might even help with destroying this keybearer you fear so much." The snake Sannin only smirked when he saw the dangerous gleam in his mistress's eyes. She wouldn't kill him. I was too valuable right now to be thrown away like that. Orochimaru chuckled evilly, soon joined with the rest, until the whole room was filled with evil laughter.

A knock on the door quieted everyone immediately. Without even turning to see who it was, Maleficent said in a commanding voice, "Enter!" The door creaked open to find two boys walking in. Riku walked in first, confident as always about what he was doing.

Orochimaru's eyes lit up excitedly when he saw the second boy. He grinned and with a voice that could have chilled anyone, said, "Nice to see you again, Sasuke."

The raven haired boy flinched at the voice, and, finding Orochimaru in the room tried to back out. He was wrong. Meeting up with the Snake Sannin was too much for him. He would have ran, only Riku had grabbed his wrist the moment he tried to leave.

"Come on, Sasuke," he said, dragging the younger boy behind him.

"You don't understand! He tried kill Sakura and me!" Sasuke tried to reason. Unconsciously, his hand reached for the seal on his neck that this very same man had given him.

Orochimaru just chuckled. "Oh Sasuke. You don't understand. I was seeing how strong you are. And you passed. I'd say give you a few years under my guidance and you might be able to beat Itachi one day."

No one in the room knew what the man was talking about, except Sasuke. A familiar fire burned in his eyes at the mention of his older brother. Maybe he should go with this man after this whole ordeal was over. He was promising him _power_! A chance to beat the man who had slaughtered his family. He might just take up Orochimaru's offer.

* * *

In a much happy part of the universe, a pink haired kunoichi faced off with a dirty blonde teenager. Both were in an arena that the others had called the sandlot. In one hand Hayner held a struggle sword, ready to face off his female opponent. Sakura just crouched low to the ground, one hand out, ready to reach for her ninja tools.

Anyone not participating was on the sidelines. Almost all of them were cheering for Hayner. This didn't anger Sakura though. After all, she was stranger here.

What did anger though were the four people on the sidelines. They weren't cheering for anyone. In fact, they were doing the exact opposite.

'_I'll have to teach these guys a lesson when I'm done,'_ she thought.

'_**They won't know what hit them! Cha!!'**_ Inner Sakura yelled.

All in all it was a pretty easy match for her. When Hayner attacked, she hit him the same she would have Naruto. A good bonk to the head that sent him sprawling, although she didn't hit quite as hard with Hayner.

Hayner sat up, dazed. Holding his head he looked up. "Wow! Where'd you learn to fight?"

Sakura shrugged. "I had someone teach me."

Hayner was grinning and wincing at the same time, Olette was checking his head, and Pence was laughing. Sakura smiled at the picture. Just like them. But then something appeared behind her. Something that Hayner and the group obviously didn't like because all the happiness melted.

Turning around Sakura saw a boy in his late teens smirking at them. He was dressed in a mid drift shirt, brown pants, boots, a sleeveless white coat, and a beanie over his blonde hair. Behind him was a petite girl and a large muscular boy.

The girl had on a navy blue sleeveless shirt and khaki capris. Her silver blue hair covered her right eye from view. She looked very quiet. The boy was wearing two blue and white wristbands, black sweats, and a tight orange sleeveless shirt that showed off his large muscles. A bit a goatee was starting to grow and he wore a confident grin.

"Thanks for the show, Hayner," the first boy said, sneering.

"What do you want, Seifer?" Hayner growled out.

"Who's your friend?" Seifer asked, motioning towards Sakura.

Stepping forward she said, "Haruno Sakura. Who's this jerk, Olette?" This earned a few snickers from Hayner's group.

Olette, still smiling, pointed to Seifer's group in turn. "This is Twilight Town's Disciplinary Committee. Seifer's the leader. The girl's Fuu, and the boy's Rai."

"They also have another guy that hangs out with them named Vivi," Hayner inputted. "By the way, where is he?"

"Dunno," Fuu murmured.

"He's been gone all day, y'know?" Rai said.

Seifer sighed. "He went for a walk. Who knows what he's doing. He's a strange one." The head of the disciplinary committee shook his head. "But back on subject. You! Haruno was it? Where'd you come from."

Sakura just put her hands on her hips and stared at the boy square in the eye. "Why do you want to know?"

"Because as head of Twilight Town's Disciplinary Committee, it's my job to know," he stated matter of factly. "Now tell us the truth."

"Well if you must know," she said mockingly, "I came from far away. In a land you would never be able to live in. With ninjas and a magic power called chakra." _'There you go, jerk! There's the truth.'_

Everyone but Seifer's group burst out in fits of laughter. Sakura only smirked at them.

"Fine, don't tell us anything. But just know, we aren't gonna let this go," the blonde boy said, walking away with his followers on his heels.

Rai turned around, "We'll be watching you, y'know!"

* * *

Sora, Donald and Goofy waved their last goodbyes to Leon, Yuffie, and the others of Traverse Town. Only one person hadn't shown up to wish them a good journey. Naruto.

"Gawrsh," Goofy said, "I sure hope he's alright. He looked pretty upset when he ran away."

"I'm sure Naruto'll be fine, as long as he doesn't run into another big heartless. I really wish that he could have come with us," Sora sighed.

"Aw, phooey!" Donald said, rolling his eyes. "Leon will find that wanna-be-ninja soon enough. Let's go."

"Y'know," Sora said, scratching his head, "it's almost feels like he's watching us." Seeing Goofy and Donald ahead of him, the keyblade master ran after them.

Inside the gummi ship, the trio settled into the seats. They had put their weapons in the back, to take up less room. "Okay," Donald said, turning around to face Sora. "We have a few basic rules about visiting other worlds. The first..." He was cut off by a loud voice in the back of the room yelling,

"Alright! I'm ready for adventure! Believe it!!"

The pairs of heads looked in the direction of the voice and together all three of them uttered out, "Naruto?"

* * *

So how was that? I loved the fight with Naruto and the the gang against the heartless. Better than last time, neh?

Also If you have any more suggestions of where some of the Naruto gang should show up, feel free to say so. So far I have one suggestion.

One more thing. I've learned a little more Japanese, so I'm going to try and lean towards the Jap version a little more, see how I fare. When and if I have time, I'll go back and edit the other chapters.

Naruto has stowed away!! But how? Didn't he run away? But before the group can ponder this, a new world has shown up. In a world where right is wrong and wrong is right, nothing is as it seems. Especially when Naruto meets a familiar face.

_NEXT TIME: Wonderland_

* * *


	7. Author's Note

**Author's Note:**

For any who really care, I have gone back and edited a few things in the previous chapters. In stead of the English version of the jutsus, I now have Japanese. I have also fixed a couple grammar (what I could find) and fixed those, as well as polish a few things here and there by added/subtracting words. I should be a little easier to follow.

And one more thing. I REALLY need ideas for other Naruto characters you want to see in this. I've figured about two or three right now. I need at least three or four more.

P.S. Sorry for raising your hopes about thinking the next chappie is uploaded. It's not. runs and hides under bed I am a little over half way done, so BE PATIENT.

Later

Sabrepaw


	8. Wonderland

Gahhh... This took forever. Or at least it felt like it. Not much action that takes place in this, but it was getting long, so I'm cutting Wonderland in half. Wiv a knife! Mwhahahah!! Okay, anyways, enjoy.

**Disclaimer: **I do NOT own Naruto OR Kingdom Hearts. They belong to their respective owners.

**A Ninja and a Keybearer**

_Chapter 7: Wonderland_

Sora, Donald, and Goofy stared at the smiling blonde in the back of the gummi ship. His arms were behind his head and he wore his signature foxy grin. "So when are we going?" he asked.

"N-Naruto," Sora sputtered out. "Wha- what are you doing here? Weren't you…?"

The shinobi just sighed and looked off, a slight pout showing. "I wasn't going to just stay in Traverse Town while you had all the fun. I told you before; I have to help the keybearer. Plus, if by any chance I do find Sakura, I can rescue her, or Sasuke, I can pulverize him!"

"Did you're world disappear, too?" Goofy asked.

"Yup," Naruto answered.

Donald cleared his throat, catching everyone's attention. "I would like to point out something." The duck paused and looked straight at the blonde. "Just how did you end up in the ship?!" he yelled.

"Henge no Jutsu," Naruto said simply. Silence was all that answered him. The blonde sighed yet again and explained. "Transformation technique. I can transform into almost anything with it."

"So what did you transform into and when?" Sora asked.

The blonde shinobi just grinned.

_-Flashback-_

_Naruto stomped into the hotel room. "Those idiots. Who do they think I am? You know this is all your fault, right fox?"_

_**"Psh. Not to mention your precious Yondaime's fault," **__the fox snorted._

_"Yeah, but if you hadn't have attacked Konoha, I wouldn't have had to be cursed with you being sealed in me. But now I can't help Sora or rescue my friends. What am I going to do?"_

_Kyuubi sighed. __**"I thought it would be obvious. Just stow away. Simple as that."**_

_"How?"_

_**"Transform into something they're going to bring along. Duh!"**_

_"Whatever." Just then, voices could be heard outside the door. "Uh oh." And with that, Naruto jumped up and crouched upside down on the ceiling, hoping not to be spotted, and just in time, too. Sora, Donald, and Goofy walked in and laid they're weapons on the bed before leaving to prepare to ship off._

_Naruto grinned. This was getting better and better. Hopping down, the shinobi picked out the smallest thing on the bed, which just so happened to be Donald's mage staff, and transformed into an exact replica._

_Now, all he had to do was wait…! 'Crap.' In his mind he could hear the fox snickering. Everyone who knew him probably would be if they knew his situation. It was a commonly known fact among the Konoha Genin; Uzumaki Naruto had NO patience._

_"Hey, Kyuubi?" he asked, trying to sound nice._

_**"What?"**__ came the half-hearted reply._

_"Can you-?"_

_**"No."**_

_"Can you please, please, please-?"_

_**"No."**_

_"Darn it fox! Let me talk!"_

_**"...No."**_

_"Can't you do _something_ cool to entertain me?" Naruto quickly got out before Kyuubi could protest._

_**"…"**_

_"…"_

_**"…"**_

_"…Please?"_

_**"…No, brat. Now leave me alone." **__And with that, Kyuubi disconnected their telepathic link._

_"Stupid fox," Naruto muttered under his breath, just as Sora and the others came back in._

_-End Flashback-_

An awkward silence occurred. Naruto had told them all, excluding the part with the Kyuubi in it, and was waiting for some praise of his brilliance.

**"You mean **_**my**_** brilliance,"** a voice growled in the back of the ninja's head.

Sora and Goofy shared a look of speechless amazement. Donald however was not so happy.

"YOU TRANSFORMED INTO MY STAFF!?" the magician started ranting. "HOW DARE YOU, YOU LITTLE-!!"

"Relax, duck," Naruto said almost pouting while pulling something out of his kunai pouch. "I still got it." Donald caught the object that blonde had thrown at him, and indeed, it was his staff. But instead of cooling him down, it only made matters worse.

Sora and Naruto looked scared as Donald started a long, wordless rant, complete with quacking and high pitched screaming.

"Don't mind him," Goofy said. "We're headed to'ards another world!" Everyone followed his point finger and saw a red and pink checkered sphere in front of them. A castle sat proudly on the top, surrounded by hedges cut to look like hearts. On the bottom was a small cottage that looked quite comfortable.

Donald immediately calmed down and looked directly at the two boys that were staring wide eyed at the sight. "Eh-hem…" he cleared his throat trying to get their attention. "I said, eh-hem!" he quacked out a little louder. Still neither boy took notice of him. "HEY!!"

"I ain't deaf you know!" Naruto shouted, holding his ringing, sensitive ears.

"Then don't act like it, Blondie," Donald muttered under his breath.

"I heard that, wise guy!"

"What do you want, Donald?" Sora asked, breaking into what would become another fight.

Donald cleared his throat again and looked between the boys. "I'm going to tell you a few rules that every new traveler needs to know."

Naruto sighed. "I know all these already. Don't insult another country's culture, no killing anyone unless asked to, don't draw attention to yourself, don't disrespect the country's Feudal Lord, or, especially, a Kage..."

"I meant GUMMI traveling," Donald interrupted. Naruto just grinned his foxy grin. The duck rolled his eyes and continued. "We can't let anyone, and I mean ANYONE, know we're from another world."

"Yeah!" Goofy agreed. "We gotta protect the world border!"

"Order," Donald corrected rather loudly. "If you do, that'd be considered meddling and could corrupt all of history as we know it."

"That's a lot to happen by telling someone you're from another place," Sora commented.

Donald sighed. "Just don't let on that you're from anther world, 'kay?" Everyone saluted.

"Alright!"

"Hai!"

"Okie dokie!"

A small voice suddenly sounded from behind them. "We're approaching Wonderland!"

"Gak!" Naruto jumped. "What was that?"

"Oh, hello!" the voice sounded again. The blonde ninja looked around frantically. "Down here!" Looking downwards, Naruto saw a cricket dressed in a coat and top hat. In one arm he held a book, and on his other, an umbrella. "Cricket's the name! Jiminy Cricket!"

"Uhhh… hi. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konoha."

"Oh! So you're from the Shinobi Nations, are you not?" Jiminy said.

"Yeah! I am!" Naruto beamed.

"Well, welcome aboard!" the cricket chirped, taking off his top hat in a most gentlemanly form.

* * *

The hole seemed to never end. All around them, clocks ticked as they fell. Finally, some light flooded the scene. Naruto seemed to be floating on his back, arms behind his head, as if he were stargazing. Goofy was in much of the same pose, only on his side with his eyes closed. Upon seeing the ground coming up, Sora and Donald quickly righted themselves and landed on their feet. Naruto and Goofy weren't so lucky.

Getting up from his face plant, the orange ninja saw a most peculiar sight. "Look! A rabbit!"

Donald turned to Sora. "Is he always this random?"

Sora's eyes widened. "No! Look at it!" Indeed, the rabbit was a strange sight.

He was adorned with a little red vest and looking at a large watch and running rather hurriedly. "Oh my fur and whiskers! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!" He panted for moment, but did not slow his pace. "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! I'm here, I should be there!"

After he ran out of sight, Naruto grinned. "Let's follow him!" And before anyone could protest, the blonde had run down the tunnel, following the rabbit.

"We really need to get a leash for him," Donald grumbled.

Sora tried his best not to laugh. _'A leash? On a fox? Oh the irony!'_

The trio found their blonde escapade arguing with… a door. "Common! Let me in!" the ninja whined.

"Go away and leave me alone!" the doorknob yawned. Immediately, he started to snore. Naruto just sat on the floor and pouted. Walking over to the bed that was against the wall, Sora noticed a hole behind the foot. One swing from the keyblade and the bed folded into the wall, revealing a rabbit's hole.

"Hey guys over here!" Sora yelled. Upon seeing the keybearer's excitement, the duck, dog, and ninja walked over.

"Well, lookie there! It's a hole!" Goofy stated.

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious," Donald grumbled.

"But we're too big to fit," Sora sighed.

Naruto just turned to the door. "Hey! Sleepyhead! Let us in!"

The doorknob peeked an eye open and frowned. "Why don't you try the bottle?" he muttered, motioning to two bottles that appeared with a poof of smoke on the table. Naruto ran towards the table and looked at the bottles. _'Which one do I try?' _he wondered. Taking the blue one, the shinobi sipped a small portion of it. Almost immediately, he started growing until his neck was bent so his head wouldn't crash through the roof.

"Gahh!!" He yelled. "What's happening!?"

"Take cover!" Goofy yelled, running as fast and as far away as possible, closely followed by Donald.

Sora hurried over to hide under the table and picked up the blue bottle Naruto had drank. "Drink me?" he read. Turning the bottle around the label read, '_One makes you large…'_ Looking up at the other bottle, he took it down. The label read, '…_and one makes you small.' _ "Hey, Naruto!" Sora called up to the giant shinobi, handing him the red bottle. "Try this one!"

Taking the small bottle into his large hands, Naruto took a sip, and instantly his size changed back to normal. "Much better! So if I take another sip from this, I should get smaller." Sora nodded.

After Naruto took another drink, Sora took his turn, then Donald, and Goofy. "Now we can fit through that little hole!" Goofy said, pointing at their destination.

* * *

And with that, the group found themselves once again in the pitch black. But only for a moment. A bright light blinded them as they walked through the hole and found themselves in what looked like a courtyard, complete with hedges that served as a wall.

Two guards stood by the entrance, which didn't seem all that unusual, except for the fact that they were cards. In fact _all_ the guards were cards! And every one of them were either spades or hearts. Ahead of them, stood what looked like a defendant's box before the judge's chair. In the box, were two people facing their backs toward Sora and the others. One of them had on a blue dress and long blonde hair held back by a black ribbon. The other was slouching and had on brown pants, a fishnet shirt, with a green jacket over it. His hair was held up in a spiky ponytail.

"Hey look! It's the white rabbit!" Naruto pointed out.

The rabbit in the waist coat ran up a long set of chairs and blew into a trumpet before calling out, "Court is now in session!"

"I'm on trial? But why?" exclaimed a sweet voice, obviously from the girl.

"How troublesome," someone else muttered, probably the boy.

"Her majesty, the Queen of Hearts, presiding!"

Looking up the judge's chair, the boys could see a rather large and ugly lady with a small crown upon her head and a fan that resembled a heart in her hand. She looked at the two figures that were in the defendant's box.

"Hey. Wait a minute," Naruto mumbled to himself. That black pineapple hair looked oddly familiar…

"Well, it's obvious," the Queen of Hearts said suddenly, "that these two are the culprits. There's no doubt about it. And why?" she paused, and immediately, her eyes blazed cruelly at the two accused. "BECAUSE I SAY SO! THAT'S WHY!!"

"That is so unfair!" the little girl cried. The boy just sighed.

"Well," the Queen of Hearts continued, "Have you anything to say in your defense?"

"Of course! I've done absolutely nothing wrong!" the girl said, pointing an accusing finger at the woman.

"Look lady," the boy sighed, "I don't even know her. How could I be in league with her? This is such a drag." He closed his eyes and shook his head, like idiots surrounded him.

'_That voice!' _Naruto thought.

"Exactly!" the girls said. She crossed her arms and frown at her accuser. "You may be queen, but doesn't give you the right to be so… so mean!"

"SILENCE!" the queen roared, scaring the girl. The boy pushed her behind him and he glared up at the woman.

"This is so troublesome, but who do you think you are scaring little girls like that!" he growled out. "Queen of Hearts my butt. More like Queen of Heartless."

'_That couldn't be him… could it?'_

This only succeeded in making the woman even madder. "You dare defy me?" she yelled.

"Guys, we should help them out!" Sora suggested.

"Yeah, but the-" Donald started, then faltered.

"We're outsiders, so wouldn't that be considered muddlin'?" Goofy finished.

"Meddling!" the duck quacked out.

"Oh yeah," Goofy chuckled. "And that's against the rules!"

"What do you think, Naruto?" Sora asked blonde, but the shinobi was too interested in staring at the boy to notice him.

"The court finds the defendants…" the queen started, "GUILTY AS CHARGED!!" The girl gasped. "For the crimes of assault and attempted theft of my heart…"

The boy turned his head and looked away. Naruto gasped when he saw the face. "Shikamaru!"

"What?" Donald asked.

"Off with their heads!" the Queen of Hearts cried.

"No, no! Oh please!" the little girl pleaded.

Just as the cards started making their way towards the pair, two voices yelled out.

"STOP!!"  
"Hold it right there!"

"Oh no," Donald muttered.

Sora and Naruto ran up to the defendant's box, Goofy and Donald following closely.

"Naruto?" the boy said, baffled.

"Who are you?" the woman in the judge's chair asked, leaning forward. "How _dare_ you interfere with my court?"

Naruto ignored her and ran up to the boy and the girl.

"Excuse me," Sora said, stepping forward. "but we know who the _real_ culprit is."

"Uh-huh! It's the Heartle-!" Goofy covered his mouth, catching his slip of the tongue just in time.

"Anyway," Sora said, trying to take attention from Goofy's mistake, "they aren't the ones your looking for."

"That's nonsense." The queen tapped her heart shaped fan impatiently on the chair, looking utterly bored. "Have you any proof?"

Sora hesitated.

"Heck, yeah!" someone cried out. "I know this guy!" It was Naruto and he was pointing at the boy. "He's too lazy to do anything except play shoji, sleep, and watch clouds!"

A vein popped out the boy's head. "Thanks a lot, Naruto," he said sarcastically.

"Any time, Shika!" the blonde grinned, placing an arm around his shoulders.

"So, wait. You guys are from the same… place?" Sora asked.

"More like another world," the boy grumbled. "Naruto, what is going on? Who's he and where are we?"

"Shikamaru, shush! I'll fill all the details later, but that's Sora, Donald and Goofy. I've been traveling with them ever sense… that storm." Leaning forward, the blonde whispered into the boy, Shikamaru's, ear. "They're from another world, too, but we can't let anyone know. Got it?"

Shikamaru sighed. "Keeping secrets are such a drag." Naruto grinned his signature foxy smile.

She was being ignored. No one was paying attention to her. And that was something the Queen of Hearts would not have! She gave a flick of her wrist and immediately the guards walked over to the stand and took hold of the little girl. It wasn't until she gasped did the boys noticed that she was being locked up in a golden cage.

"Hey!" Sora yelled.

The cards headed towards Shikamaru who let them take him away without a fight, mumbling that fighting was too much of a drag. "Gawrsh, he's kinda lazy, ain't he?" Goofy stated, somewhat surprised.

"You have no idea," Naruto muttered. "Hey lady," he yelled up at the Queen of Hearts, "let our friends go!"

Not being called by her proper title was a real blow to the crabby woman, but she decided to hold her temper, although it was as plain as the nose on her face (that was in fact turning red) that she was mad. Not that Naruto really cared anyways.

"I will let them out… after you bring me evidence of their innocence. If you fail… then it's OFF WITH ALL YOUR HEADS!!" she yelled. The boys unconsciously grabbed their throats at this statement. A barely audible 'troublesome woman' was mumbled out, but ignored. The queen smoothed out her hair and composed herself before saying, "You can gather as much or as little as you want. Report back here when you're ready."

The gang nodded, their agreement. Donald and Goofy had started their way to exit when Sora called out to them. "Hey guys hold up! I want to see something first."

Donald grumbled under his breath, but walked over anyways. Walking over to the golden cage, Sora crouched down so he was at eye level with the little girl locked in it.

"Who're you?" she asked.

"I'm Sora."

"The name's Uzumaki Naruto!"

"Well, I'm Goofy, and that there's Donald."

The girl smiled. "My name is Alice."

Someone sighed next to her. "Nara Shikamaru." The shadow user was in another cage close by. He was leaning against the bars and looking up at the clouds. Over all, giving him the lazy atmosphere he greatly deserved.

Sora turned back to Alice. "Don't worry, we'll get you guys out."

A look of relief washed over her face and her blue eyes sparkled. "Oh thank you!"

"But where can we find evidence?" Donald asked.

"The Cheshire Cat I met in the forest may know something. But be careful-"

"Hey! Get going!" the guard by the cages called out. He'd had enough of their chitchatting. "No talking to the prisoners!"

As the boys turned to leave, Shikamaru called after them. "Hey, Naruto! I know it's a drag, but make sure you use whatever there is of your brain! Dying right now would terribly troublesome."

Naruto grinned. "Sure thing, Shika!"

"Good luck!" Alice exclaimed while they were heading out the exit and into the forest.

* * *

Huge lily pads met the group. In fact it looked like a giant forest, much like the one surrounding Konoha, making Naruto feel a little bit closer to home. But the forest wasn't the only thing that met them.

A pink and purple striped head suddenly appeared and bounced in front of them. It had huge grin plastered on its face, big enough to put Naruto's own trademark one to shame.

"Gah!!" the blonde screamed. Everyone took a step back as a body appeared standing on the head. Jumping down, the body picked up it's pedestal and put it on its shoulder, showing the form to be a pink cat with purple stripes.

"Wh-wha-what are you?" Naruto stuttered out. All he could think about was ghosts; a secret fear that could have him hiding under his covers for the rest of the day.

Sora pushed past the stuttering blonde and walked up to the cat. "I was wondering if you could answer us something."

"The Cheshire Cat knows everything," he replied. "All you have to do is avoid getting confused."

"You're the cat?" Donald quacked out.

"Indeed!" he purred.

"Ah-yuck!" Goofy said. "Then maybe you know where we can find the-"

"Evidence?" the cat interrupted.

"Yeah!"

"There is four boxes hidden through out this world," the Cheshire Cat told them. "Three of them are a cinch to find. The last is a bit harder. The evidence you seek will be in the boxes… or are they?" While he was saying this, the cat had started to disappear. Before he vanished completely, he added one more thing. "To trust or not to trust. I trust you'll decide."

* * *

Meh. I though that was a good of place as any to stop. This one was kinda boring, but the next one will be cool! Naru-chan gets a shiny new weapon! :D

Four boxes contain the evidence they need to prove their friends' innocence. But can they get them in time? Meanwhile, a strange new weapon has appeared. It's wielder has been chosen. But we must remember one thing, when you turn on a light, a shadow is made.

_NEXT TIME: Guilty Until Proven Innocent!_

* * *


	9. Guilty Until Proven Innocent

I am BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!! :D And I have brought the eighth chappie with me! Hooray!! The reason this is so late is due to a bunch of reasons. 1) I had to study for final exams for a bunch of weeks. 2) I am working two jobs at the moment. 3) This chapter is uber uber long! and 4) I had a bad case of Lazyitous! Well anyways, enjoy the story!

**DISCLAIMER!: **I don't own Kingdom Hearts or Naruto. They belong to their original owners. If I did own them however... well, let's just say that the world would be begging at my feet! Evil laughter in the background

**A Ninja and a Keybearer**

_Chapter 8: Guilty Until Proven Innocent_

Sora and the gang wandered through the forest. Already they had found one box of evidence. Upon opening it up, the boys had found an antenna. It was really quite disturbing actually, considering that it was still twitching. Unfortunately for him, Naruto had been elected as the official carrier of the boxes. Said ninja had taken one look at the… thing… inside and stuffed the box into his kunai pouch.

"So that leaves three more," Sora stated, his arms resting behind his head.

"Greeeaat!" Naruto said, sarcasm dripping in his voice. In a much more serious tone, he asked, "Why can't we just bust them out?"

Donald sighed and pinched the bridge of his beak, trying to calm himself down. "I've already told, _five times_, that would be going against the rules of this world, which would qualify as meddling."

"Yeah!" Sora said, smiling. "It's obvious that what that queen says goes."

Naruto pouted. He hated being wrong. "I break the rules all the time," the ninja mumbled, thinking of all the pranks he'd pulled as a kid. "Heh. Once I even painted on the Hokage Monument!" He grinned, thinking of how much fun he'd had. All eyes had been on him for once… until Iruka-sensei had taken him back to class.

"Hey, fellers," Goofy said, suddenly stopping. He was ignored.

"I already told you Blondie! We could change the whole course of history if we did anything stupid!"

"Hey, fellers…"

"Well, maybe changing the course of history wouldn't be so bad! And don't call me Blondie! It's Naruto! NA-RU-TO! Got it?"

"Fellers…?"

"Why would changing history 'not be so bad', hmmm? And if you don't want to be called it, then don't act like it!"

"Um… Fellers?"

"Because the past can be painful! We could stop someone's life from being unbearable!! And I'm not!"

"Not in my book it wouldn't!"

"Hey, fellers!"

"GUYS!!" Three pairs of eyes turned to Sora, who had yelled out. "What did you want to say, Goofy?"

"Oh, uh, well, I found another box." An awkward silence occurred at this statement, followed by an immediate crowding around Goofy.

Sora took the box and opened it. Inside was a piece of wood with long marks scoured into the bark. "Claw marks," Naruto explained, being the most familiar with wild animals and their habits, namely a certain humongous fox.

"So, uh, I guess that leaves two more, right?" Goofy asked.

"And that means we're closer to saving Alice," exclaimed Sora.

"And Shikamaru!!" Naruto yelled.

"Not so fast!" Donald said, stopping the three in their excitement. "There's still the hardest one to find, and even if we do, there's no telling whether or not the Queen of Hearts lets them go."

"Oh, yeah," Sora mumbled, starting to walk forward again with everyone closely following him.

"Spoil sport," a certain blonde ninja muttered under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, oh great one… idiot."

"I heard that!!"

"So whatcha gonna do about- gah!" Naruto stopped in the middle of his sentence and fell to the ground, choking.

"Gwarsh! What's wrong, Naruto?"

"Need… Air!" the blonde gasped out. "Clean air!"

"You know," Donald said, not paying any heed to the choking boy. "It does kinda smell bad here."

"No kidding," Sora said while holding his nose. "Hey, look! It's another box!" Running over to the object on the ground, the keybearer opened up the lid. What came from that box was not something that would have been expected. When the top had been taken off, a greenish black vapor rose out of the box. Behind him, Sora was vaguely aware of a certain shinobi crying out for his mother.

"Well, it's obvious what that is," Donald commented. "Stench. Who knew Heartless smelled so bad… And who knew that boys had such a strong sense of smell. Are you okay, Blondie?"

Naruto, who had found the strength the pinch his nose and hold his breath, held up his free hand, making the OK sign. Mentally he was cursing his Kyuubi-enhanced nose.

Sora put the lid back on the box after that and looked between it and his blonde friend, who was breathing in the somewhat clear air deeply. "Umm. Maybe I should hold on to this one."

"You do that."

"Well, Donald," Sora said, grinning, "it looks like we only have one more to go!"

The magician just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."

* * *

She sat smugly on her throne. Those fools wouldn't be able to do it. There was no way they could find any evidence. Then she could prove once again about how dangerous it is to cross her, the Queen of Hearts!

The queen chuckled and looked over at her two captives. "It seems, my dears," she said, catching the full attention of the girl, who looked extremely worried, "that your friends aren't coming."

Alice gasped and fell to the floor. "I'm not ready to die," she whispered.

The queen ignored her and looked directly at the boy. "Does that not affect you at all, young man? Do you not care that you are about to die?"

Shikamaru looked at her out of the corner of his eye then gazed at the clouds again. "No." The Queen of Hearts started to say something, to try and make him fear her, when the shadow user interrupted. "I don't necessarily care about anything. I've often wondered what my life would be like if I was a cloud. Nothing to do. Just floating along living life. A carefree life. Problems are such a drag. If I die, I'm just going to the next world, right? What's the point?"

Alice looked at him with awe. Were these his last words? He seemed so fearless. Was he really ready to die? Then he smirked and closed his eyes. "Besides," he said, "Worrying about pointless stuff is too troublesome anyways."

"What are you babbling about?" the Queen of Hearts asked, not really caring. "Do you think useless words will work on me? I'm going to have both of you beheaded! Right here, right now!!" She roared.

Shikamaru chuckled. "Words won't work on you. Begging is such a drag. But I'm not going to die."

Enraged, the woman was fixing to yell at him, but someone beat her to it. "Hey! Shikamaru!!"

Four figures emerged from the entrance of the bizarre room. Two of them were grinning madly, one had a happy smile, and the last one was sulking. "Shikamaru!" one of them yelled. "We gottem!"

Shikamaru looked at the queen and smirked. The queen ignored him and glared at Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Naruto. What was she going to do now? No one could, should, or would defy her. Not now, not _ever_! Through her anger, a plan suddenly found its way inside her twisted mind.

The Queen of Hearts smiled and called out to the group. "Alright then, now show me what you have found." Each boy took a box and set it before her. "Well, that's certainly a lot of evidence… but I'm still not impressed."

Naruto looked at her with squinted eyes, crossed his arms, and pouted. "Look lady! Finding all of these things was hard, especially the last one."

"Really," the woman said, not at all interested.

"Yeah."

_-Flashback-_

"_Alright! One more box!" Naruto yelled._

_Donald ignored him and turned to Sora. "And where do you think we're going to find this extremely-hard-to-find box? Hmm?"_

_The keybearer put his hands behind his head and gazed at the sky. "Dunno. But we'll find it."_

_Naruto gazed at his friend. "Yah, know… If Old Man Hokage had met you, he'd probably say…" The blonde fell silent and gazed at the ground, pain evident in his eyes._

"_Say what?" Sora pressed._

"_Um… nothing."_

_Donald sighed and went to lean against the trunk of a tree. "You know, if you're going to say, something, at least think it ou- Quaaaack!!" Before he could finish his sentence, Donald had disappeared._

"_What the..." Naruto muttered. "It's almost like he used the Shunshin no jutsu… but he's not a ninja."_

"_Where'd he go?" Sora asked. "I know he's a magician, but he's not strong enough to turn invisible, is he?"_

"_Gwarsh. Do ya think this little hole might have something to do with it?" Goofy asked. And once again, the slowest one in the group had been proven right again. Their duck friend had fallen through the hole, onto the huge faucet, and onto the ground knocked out. "Heya, Donald!" The magician didn't seem to notice._

_Sora looked around in amazement. "We're in the bizarre room again!"_

"_It's the box!" Naruto yelled. And so it was. The box was sitting on the shelf opposite of their position on the water faucet…what the heck was a water faucet doing there anyways? But back on subject._

"_That's a pretty long way to jump," the keybearer said, a worried expression on his face. "I don't know if we can jump that far."_

_Naruto just snorted. "You can't," a familiar foxy grin slowly found its wait on the blonde's face, "but I can." And without a second thought, the Konoha shinobi leapt to the other side and back, box in hand._

_Goofy was amazed. "Wow, Naruto! That was amazing!"_

_The blonde only grinned, enjoying the praise. In truth, any ninja could have done it. It was so simple…but why should they need to know that? "Let's get back and save everyone."_

_-End Flashback-_

"Sounds tough to me," Shikamaru said to Naruto, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Naruto squinted his eyes at his friend and frown.

The Queen of Hearts ignored them. "Cards!" she called out. "Bring forth _my_ evidence!" She smirked as the cards brought out a box that resembled those that contained the evidence Sora and the others had collected.

"Wh-wh-wh-WHAT!!" Naruto yelled. "You can't do that!"

"Actually, she can," Donald inputted.

The queen smirked. "You strange friend here speaks the truth." Suddenly she sighed, as if bored. "Checking all five boxes would be a waste of time… Alright, choose one to present to me. I will decide if they are guilty based on the evidence."

"What!" Sora yelled, repeating his blonde friend. "After all the trou-"

"YOU DARE OBJECT!" The queen's face turned an unhealthy shade of red. "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!! Now choose one box!"

"Yes, ma'am," saluted an extremely scared brunette.

While this exchange had taken place, the cards had switched the boxes. Walking up to the evidence, Sora walked between the boxes. _'Which one.' _The keybearer sighed. "I guess I'll have to use the most ancient and effective way of picking," he said aloud. Everyone leaned forward, interested in what this technique was. Each had their own thoughts running through their heads.

'_Is it magic?'_

'_Is he usin' the keyblade!'_

'_A special jutsu?'_

'_**This kid's embarrassing.'**_

'_Shut up, fox! This doesn't concern you!'_

'_Is he cheating?'_

'_Will he save us?'_

'_As far as I know, there isn't anything that could work like that.'_

Clearing his throat, Sora pointed at each box in turn and said, "Eenie! Meanie! Minie! MOE!" Everyone sweat dropped. "It's that one," Sora concluded.

Despite everyone's embarrassment, Sora opened the… and as soon as he did, a heartless jumped out. The Queen screamed as it raced towards her, jumping at her chest, trying to get its cold claws on her heart, but it never had a chance. Moments before the Queen of Hearts lost her own, a keyblade came sailing through, cutting through the heartless, rendering into nothing but dust.

"Wh-what was that… thing?" the queen gasped out.

Sora stood back and glared at her. "There's your evidence. Our friends are innocent."

The Queen of Hearts growled. No one, and I mean _no one_, told _her _what to do! "SILENCE!! I am law!" she roared. "Article 29: Anyone who defies the queen is _guilty_!"

"That's crazy!" Naruto yelled.

"SEIZE THEM AT ONCE!!"

A tower suddenly appeared out of no where and lifted Alice's cage above the ground, but not before covering it with a red cloth, much like what you would put over a bird's cage.

"Naruto!" Shikamaru yelled, just as they were starting on his own cage. "Give me a kunai!" Naruto threw the projectile at the shadow user, who caught it with ease. Cutting open the lock, Shikamaru quickly formed a seal and called out, "Kagemane no Jutsu!" Instantly his shadow stretched and raced towards the approaching guards, making them immobile. "Heh," he smirked.

"What on earth is he doing!?" Donald quacked.

Naruto looked at the duck with squinted eyes. "He's using his shadow jutsu, duh!"

"Don't DUH me, you little twerp!"

"Whatever. I'm gonna go fight!"

"Get 'em, Naruto," Shikamaru said, over his shoulder, his gaze locked onto the cards caught in his jutsu.

Naruto walked up beside his friend and stood there for a moment. Then, he formed an all too familiar seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Where there was one, suddenly ten Narutos appeared. "Ready everyone? These guys should be easy to take out!"

Donald watched from beside Shikamaru (who had held his jutsu long enough to let Naruto grab hold of the cards and… dispose of them) as Sora, Goofy, and the orange clad ninjas fought their enemies. "I'm surprised he didn't use it," he said to no one in particular.

"Use what?" the lazy shinobi asked.

"Just something he found in the forest. It was actually pretty cool… not that I'd use it or anything."

Shikamaru grinned as he saw the tell-tale sign of a large bundle under the blonde's orange jacket. "If I know Naruto, then he's probably saving it up for something bigger than a fight against… hearts and spades." Donald just shrugged in agreement.

Eventually, the trio out in the battle field reached the tower and spun the wheel that brought Alice's cage to the ground. But when they went to uncover it, they were surprised to see it empty.

"Where'd she go?" Naruto asked.

The Queen of Hearts yelled at her guards. "Fools! Find who's behind this!" Immediately, the cards rushed to do her bidding.

"She must have gotten kidnapped," Shikamaru said in a bored tone.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Sora asked the shadow user.

The lazy boy sighed before explaining. "While we were locked up, Alice told me that some strange black creatures, (the heartless, right?) kept attacking her and trying to drag her away. I suspect that while we were all busy, they must have snuck in and took Alice."

Shikamaru had just finished his explanation when a squad of menacing looking cards surrounded the group. "This… doesn't look to good."

The five boys ran into the woods of safety with the Queen's shouts of, "OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!" following them.

* * *

Upon entering the woods, yet again, the five figures looked for a place to hide. "There _has_ to be _somewhere_ she won't find us!" Naruto complained.

Donald was fixing to comment, but never had the chance when Shikamaru yelled out, "Duck!" At the exact moment that they all scattered, a huge rock flew out at them. But it wasn't the rock that amazed them the most. It was the figure _on_ the rock.

It happened the way it first had. A broad, cheery smile appeared, followed by the body of none other than the Cheshire Cat. "Good afternoon, gentlemen," he said. And like last time, Naruto screamed.

Shikamaru stared at the cat for a moment before muttering out a half hearted 'troublesome'.

Sora walked up to the cat and got straight to the point. "Have you seen Alice?"

The cat chuckled before saying, "Alice, no. Shadows, yes."

"Where'd they go?" Donald asked forcefully.

The Cheshire shrugged. "This way? That way? Does it matter? Left right, up down. All mixed up thanks to the shadows." Before anyone could ask anything else, he pointed to the hole in the wall that had been covered by the rock he had been sitting on. "Go to the deserted garden. You might find shadows in the upside down room." And once again, he disappeared before anyone could question his riddles.

The five boys looked at the hole that the Cheshire Cat had pointed at. Naruto scratched his head, utterly confused. "How'd he move the rock?"

* * *

Through the hole they went, not knowing what to expect, but they weren't expecting what they saw. It was a garden with a long table in the middle. Many teapots and teacups were set out on it. But what was most peculiar about it was the large picture sitting at the head of the table. It showed a brown rabbit in a red coat and a small man in a much too large green hat. Both looked mad. The group headed for the cottage and opened the door to find another weird room.

It was a room fit for a giant. There were two tables in the middle of the floor. On them were lamps.

Shikamaru looked upward. He was really bored. But instead of looking at what should have been the ceiling, it seemed to be… an upside down room? "What the…"

Naruto looked up, too, just to see what his friend had seen. "Hey! Isn't that the…"

"Bizarre room? Yeah," Sora finished for him.

"That's pretty neat!" Goofy exclaimed.

Donald sighed. "What do we do now?"

"They're hiding somewhere," a voice echoed around the room. And none other than the Cheshire Cat faded in soon after.

Naruto crouched behind Shikamaru, shivering. "Do you think he's a… a ghost? I mean, how else can he just… appear out of no where?"

A pained expression came across the lazy ninja's face. "Naruto, you're just too troublesome."

The cat ignored them and continued. "Did you know that when you turn on a light, a shadow is made? You'll see them soon. They might go after the door knob." And once again, he smiled a toothy grin and disappeared.

"Turn on a light," Sora mumbled. An idea hit him as he glanced at the two lamps. "That's it!" he yelled before jumping onto the table. "Fire!" he yelled. The flame that sprouted from his keyblade ignited the lamps, making the room suddenly brighter.

"Now what?" Naruto mumbled.

"We go to the doorknob," Shikamaru sighed. "Anyone know where one is?"

"Yeah! In the bizarre room!" Goofy smiled. "But how do you know that?"

The shinobi sighed, as if it was painfully obvious. "Troublesome. He said, 'They might go after the door knob.' If they're gonna be anywhere, they're gonna be there. Geeze, this is such a drag."

"Oh yeah!" Sora cried. "Come on! Let's go!"

As they rushed to the room that might hold the answers they were looking for, many thoughts flittered around Naruto's head. He couldn't help but worry for his teammates. It was his fault that they weren't here. Sakura was kidnapped, too scared to fight back, and Sasuke… lost to the darkness. _'Sakura… Sasuke… I'll find you. I promise.'_

Naruto was so deep in his thoughts that he didn't his ever-cheerful grin was falling. Sora looked at him worriedly. In the short time he had known him, Naruto almost always had a smile on his face. Something had to be wrong. "Naruto?" he asked. "Are you okay?"

The blonde instantly grinned and looked at Sora. "Who me? Yeah! I'm fine!" Naruto walked a little further so he was ahead of Sora and wouldn't be able to watch him anymore.

Shikamaru walked up behind the keybearer. "It's a mask you know," he muttered.

"What?" Sora asked in bewilderment.

"Naruto's smile and happy atmosphere. It's a mask. A cover up."

"But… why?"

"He doesn't like people worrying for him. I guess he's not used to it. Back home, he's the bane of our village. A monster, some would call him. No one really notices him or his achievements. Nobody cares. But none of us know why." Shikamaru told him, mumbling the last part.

'_I know why,'_ Sora thought. _'It has to be the Kyuubi.'_

Shikamaru smirked, interrupting the brunette's thoughts. "Heh. Naruto is the kind of person who feels he has to hold everyone else's weight. He never gives up with out a fight, and even then he almost never does. He wants to prove to everyone that he's strong on his own. And that's probably why Hinata likes him so much."

"Who?" Sora asked, completely confused.

"Just a girl who cares about everyone else's well-being too. It's a drag sometimes, but she's actually pretty nice. One of the few girls who aren't so… troublesome. Come on. Let's catch up to Naruto before he does something stupid." Sora smiled and hurried after their blonde friend.

Unknown to both of them, Donald, who had been walking in front of them, had heard the conversation. The duck magician just couldn't help but feel a little guilty for yelling at the blonde earlier. _'Is that why he wants to change the past?'_

* * *

The bizarre room was just as they had left it; huge and vacant. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and mumbled, "This place is just too troublesome."

"Yeah, yeah. We know, Shikamaru," Naruto said, waving it off with his hand. "What're we here for again?"

Donald sighed. "To find Alice, idiot!"

Naruto's eyes bulged and he glared at the duck. "You know what! I'm getting really annoyed you and your stupid attitude!!"

"Deal with it!"

"Maybe I don't want to!"

"Well maybe you should!"

Goofy looked worried. "Gwarsh, guys. Shouldn't we be lookin' for Alice now?"

Naruto and Donald paused in their fight to look at Goofy. Naruto scractched the back of his head and looked away. "I guess," he mumbled.

Donald looked at life long friend. "Sorry, Goofy. Guess I got carried away that time."

"_THAT_ TIME?" Naruto screamed.

Before another argument broke out, another voice pitched in. "Well, aren't we the happy group."

"You!" Naruto screamed. This cat was really starting to scare him.

"Hello, all! Have you found the shadows yet?" the Cheshire Cat asked, appearing right in front of them.

"No," Sora mumbled, looking at the floor.

"Well, you might have a better look from up here." The purple figure disappeared from sight and showed back up on the table in the middle of the room.

As the group walked towards him, Goofy stopped and rested his chin on his hand.

"What's wrong, Goofy?" Donald asked.

"Hmmm. Something doesn't feel quite right," he muttered.

Donald rolled his eyes. "Ah phooey!"

Jumping up onto the chair and onto the table, Sora found the Cheshire Cat laying on his side. "Are you prepared for the worst?" he asked. "If not, then too bad."

"Wha-" Sora started.

"It's a shadow!" Shikamaru (almost) yelled.

And indeed it was. It was very tall, with the many heads stacked on top of one another almost touching the ceiling. In its hands it spun around two juggling pins, creating a deadly shield.

"You tricked us!" Naruto yelled. The cat just shrugged and grinned before fading from sight, and just in time to stay out of trouble. The blonde just growled and glared at the heartless, intent on making it a punching bag for his fury. He quickly formed a familiar hand seal and cried out, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Twenty Narutos appeared and, each yelling a blood curdling battle cry, charged at the heartless. However, one swing of the Heartless's pins destroyed the invading boys, rendering them to nothing more than little clouds, poofing out of existence and sending the real one flying backwards.

Sora jumped from the table and seemed to glide over to the heartless, his keyblade pulled back and ready for the swing that had the big juggler stumbling back a bit, dazed, but instantly retaliated with another swing of its arms, knocking everyone back. While everyone was fallen, the heartless started high stepping, bringing its foot down hard in hopes of further injuring its opponents.

Naruto growled yet again. "Shikamaru!" he yelled. "Stop that thing with your Kagemane!" Slowly, the blonde shinobi started reaching behind his back.

Shikamaru, seeing the movement, was already a step ahead of his obnoxious friend. After performing the necessary hand seal, his shadow stretched across the tiled floor, reaching for its enemy, paralyzing him for the moment. He smirked. "Shadow beats shadow."

Naruto's bangs covered his eyes as he grabbed something under his jacket with both hands and pulled it out. It was a long katana; a nodachi. The words Enkou Namikaze engraved on the blade. Wind and Waves of Flame. Naruto looked up and glared at the Heartless before asking his shadow-using friend, "You ready, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru nodded, knowing exactly what he wanted. Sora, Donald, and Goofy could only watch, wondering what the pair were going to do. There wasn't any secret plan as far as they knew. They hadn't said anything to each other. Did they?

"Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu," Shikamaru muttered. He shadow suddenly turned into a hand started its way upwards toward the heartless' neck.

The large juggler tried to force the shadow back down, Naruto took his distraction as an opening. Jumping up onto the table and pushing himself forward, the blonde raised the sword above his head and brought it down enough force to push the heartless away and on the ground.

Sora instantly rushed forward and started attacking his enemy with combos, battering it around like a doll. "_BLIZZARD!_" Donald yelled while ice formed its way around the heartless' ankles, keeping it unable to get up. Goofy rushed at it, his shield in front of his body and pushed back the heartless' head, making it hit against the tile floor.

Trying to get up, the heartless realized that it was still held captive by Donald's spell. And upon seeing it was ice, it blew fire from its mouth to melt it. Naruto cursed. This wasn't going so well. The heartless was bringing its juggling pins toward the group again, intent on doing more than just knocking them out. But just as the pin was going to hit, it stopped in its tracks.

"Man," someone muttered behind them. "I really didn't want to get involved. You guys are just too troublesome." Shikamaru looked at them with half closed eyes, as if accusing them of all the trouble he was going through.

"Thanks, Shika!" Naruto exclaimed, grinning.

"_BLIZZARD!!"_ Donald cried out again. This time the ice didn't stop at the feet, but the legs, arms, and eventually the head. He was taking no chances this time. Goofy set his shield flying like a boomerang, hitting the two pins out of the heartless' hands and onto the floor. Naruto quickly took action and sliced through the heartless, not killing it, but making it unable to move against them.

But the heartless still had a trick or two up its sleeve. While it couldn't move its body, it could still breath. And that is exactly what it did; right at the three figures in front of it. Naruto, Donald, and Goofy could only watch in horror as the flames shot out of its mouth and towards them. Sora jumped in front of his friends and hit the incoming fireball with is keyblade, sending it right back at the heartless, hitting it square in the face. "What the…" Naruto muttered.

"It's the power of the keyblade," Goofy said, smiling.

Because it couldn't move to catch its balance, the heartless fell backwards.

Sora lunged at it, attacking ruthlessly. All he could think about was Alice. He _needed_ to find her. He didn't know why, but he felt that it was his duty to. Sora continued hacking at his fallen enemy, even after it started dissolving, signifying they had won.

"Sora you did it!!" Naruto yelled. The keybearer was instantly tackled by his friends in an over excited hug.

Shikamaru walked up and placed a hand on Sora's shoulder and muttered, "Good job."

"Ugh!" someone grumbled. The group looked back to see the door knob was awake again. "What is it? What's going on?" he yawned. "How's a doorknob to get any sleep?"

"This world is so messed up," a certain lazy ninja muttered.

Donald was steaming. "HOW CAN YOU SLEEP AT A TIME LIKE THIS?!"

Sora didn't pay any attention to him. There was some shape in the doorknob's mouth when it yawned._ 'Eh? Something's glowing…'_ he thought. Out loud he muttered, "Keyhole?" A beam of light suddenly shot out of the keyblade and towards the doorknob's open mouth. "Whaa-!!" Sora exclaimed.

A noise emitted from the doorknob. "What was that?" Naruto asked, completely amazed.

"You hear that?" Donald asked. "Sounded like something closed!"

"It sounded like a click," Shikamaru pointed out.

Goofy looked down and saw something glittering in the light. Bending down, he picked it up and examined it before exclaiming, "Hey, fellers look what I found!" the boys all rushed over to him. "This ain't like the others. No sir! See?" Goofy held out the object. A small green gummi block glimmered back at them.

"Okay! I'll hold onto it!" Donald said, holding out his hand. Goofy placed the gummi into his friend's hand just as the same mysterious voice that always showed up at the most peculiar times called out to them.

"Splendid! You're quite the hero!" Naruto could feel himself shiver. He couldn't way until they far, far, _far_ away from this psycho cat.

"Cheshire Cat…" Sora called up to him. "Who are you?"

The purple striped cat just grinned at them. "If you're looking for Alice, she's not here."

"What?" Sora exclaimed.

"My friends, I'm afraid she's gone. Gone with the shadows… into the darkness."

Sora fell to his knees. Naruto put a comforting hand on his shoulder before looking up at the cat with a serous look on his face. "Where is she?" he asked, every word promising a slow and painful death if he was not told what he wanted to here.

This simple amused the cat to no end. "You'll see her again. Make no mistake of that. A ninja and a keybearer. What an odd pair indeed, but strong nonetheless. You'll rescue her… and us." And with that the Cheshire Cat disappeared.

* * *

In a dark room, seven dark figures watched in raging silence. "That darn cat!"

"He needs to keep his big mouth closed!"

"We should have finished him off when he turned down our offer!"

"Too late for that."

"Even if we let him live, he can't do us much harm."

"But the boy is a problem!"

"He found one of the keyholes!"

"My, my, my," one more figure said. Orochimaru looked at his new… well, we'll just call them comrades for now. The snake shinobi had never sat at the table, and never really cared to. He liked to feel apart from them. Unlike them, Orochimaru could see what they were. Pawns; little toys for Maleficent to play with. And the snake Sannin _refused_ to become a pawn for someone else.

"It seems that little Naruto-kun is indeed living up to be the Yondaime's legend," he continued. "In fact, he found the fourth's old weapon. Waves and Winds of Fire. Your little keybearer is not the only one you should worry about. It seems the cat was right. They are strong. Very strong."

One of the shadows stood up and banged his fist on the table. "We need to take care of this right away-"

"There's no need to rush," a chilling voice murmured. Turning around, everyone saw Maleficent smiling coldly at them. It will take Sora ages to find the other keyholes. And as for Naruto… well, little pests can easily be taken care of." She paused before saying, "Besides… the pieces are all falling into place in our favor!" A shadow materialized out of the darkness, revealing a very frightened Alice.

* * *

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!! I finished it! does a happy dance I would like to thank Lithius for helping with the weapon. It really came in handy! :D

Jungles can be fraught with danger. And its mostly with pure luck that most survive at all. What happens when Sora and the gang crash into one of the most dangerous places of all?

_NEXT TIME: The Deep Jungle_


	10. Into the Deep Jungle

I figured it was time to reward y'all for waiting. This was getting a little long anyways. And all you who have been asking about Akatsuki, here yah go! The group coughItachiandKisamecough make their first appearance!! :D

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or Kingdom Hearts. I just like the idea of putting them together.

**A Ninja and a Keybearer**

_Chapter 9: Into the Deep Jungle_

Their mission in Wonderland was over. It was time to head back to Traverse Town. Leon could probably answer some of their questions. He had mentioned something about keyholes, but not enough for them to understand enough. Was that click they heard one of the keyhole… or was it something else?

After Shikamaru stared at their strange form of transportation everyone piled back onto the gummi ship. Naruto had never seen his friend's eyes so get that large and was laughing his butt off… until Donald whacked him on the head with his mage staff.

Sora was the last one to get onboard. He stopped right in the doorway and took one more look at the strange world. He couldn't save Alice. He had promised to set her free, but he hadn't even done that. What did the heartless want her for anyways? "Come on, Sora!" someone (most likely Naruto) shouted at him. The door closed behind him and the gummi ship flew off into space.

The ride back was mostly uneventful. Shikamaru slept most of the time and Naruto and Donald were having their hourly fight. Goofy was flying the ship and Sora was sitting in his chair, depressed.

"Hey, Sora," Goofy said, looking over at his spiky haired friend. "Smile!" He gave a big grin, trying to cheer Sora up.

"GOOFY!! KEEP YOUR EYES FORWARD!!" the duck mage yelled.

"Gwarsh! Sorry, Donald," the knight said sincerely.

Sora sighed and looked back out the window and was utterly surprised by what he saw. "Hey look! There's a world down there!" Everyone rushed to the window and stared at the world they were passing by. It was covered in a dense forest, like a jungle. Vines looped around the world and huge waterfall was centered in the middle of it. At the top, an old tree house stood tall and proud.

Donald looked at the world and then at the person breathing on his neck. It was Goofy. The duck was fixing to yell at his friend about personal space when he noticed something. The driver's seat was empty. "Gwaaa!!" he yelled, rushing to stop the gummi ship before it ran into something.

"Hey Donald!" Goofy called over to his friend, completely oblivious to the death glare he was receiving. "Maybe the king's down there!"

The duck snorted. "In a backwater place like that? No way. Let's move on. We got to get to Traverse Town anyways."

"Hold on!" Sora shouted. "Riku and Kairi might be down there!"

"Yeah! And Sasuke-teme and Sakura-chan!"

"Let's just check it out," the keybearer suggested.

"Forget it! We're on an important mission." Donald reminded him.

"I am too!" Naruto retorted.

"Just land," Sora ordered.

"No!"

"Come on."

"Aw, phooey."

Shikamaru yawned and opened his eyes. "You guys sure are loud," he muttered.

"We're landing." Sora got up and walked over to the control pad.

As soon as he reached for a button, Donald yelled, "Don't touch that!" Too late. The gummi ship was spinning out of control and heading towards the strange world. Fast. "Noooo!!"

* * *

The tent was dark. Clayton could only see the outline of his visitors. Professor Porter, the financier of the voyage, and his daughter were currently out in the jungle studying some plant or other. It had been Clayton's suggestion. After all, he didn't want them to meet his two new… "friends".

Although he couldn't see them, Clayton was practically peeing in his pants when they looked at him. There was a big bulk on the taller one's back. From what he could see Clayton would have said it was a sword, but that was silly. Swords weren't made that big… were they?

But it was the shorter one that really scared him. The man's eyes had almost a glowing effect on his shadowed face, giving Clayton a great view of blood red irises with three marks circling the pupil.

"So all I have to do is capture a small loud mouthed blonde and you lead me to the gorillas, correct?" he asked.

The smaller man nodded. "So do we have a deal?"

The hunter grinned and held out his hand. The man looked at it like it was in insult before looking back up at Clayton's face. "Good," he muttered before walking out of the tent without a second glance. The taller man followed his companion, but before he closed the tent flap after him, he turned around and smiled at the hunter. Clayton held his breath when he saw that smile. The pale blue skin and yellow eyes resembled that of a shark, completed with the teeth of that grin. Long and sharp.

"You got off lucky," he said, before walking out fully.

* * *

He was falling. Fast. The roof of the tree house was rushing toward him. He instinctively brought his arms to his face to block the incoming pain. It was barely enough.

Sora crashed through the ceiling of the tree house and onto the floor. Sitting up slowly, he clutched his head and groaned in pain. "That hurt." A thought suddenly crossed his mind. Where was he? Sora looked around. It was old and dirty. Vines crawled through the cracks, making their way towards the light. All in all, it looked like no one had lived here for years.

"Donald? Goofy? Naruto? Shikamaru?" Sora called out, hysteria creeping into his voice. "Where are you?"

Something squeaked on the ledge above him, but the keybearer paid no mind to it. It was probably just the wind, but it made him uneasy anyways. A rumbling noise sounded, again, above him. _'It's just thunder,'_ told himself. Sora looked outside to perfectly clear day. Not a cloud in the sky. Now he was really scared.

Suddenly a roar sounded and Sora turned to see what it really was… and screamed at the sight. A leopard jumped from the ledge and launched itself at the brunette. Sora yelled in fear and surprise, and quickly took out the keyblade. Jumping up, the keyblade master met the leopard head on and tried to push it back. Claws raked across the keyblade, making a horrible, ear piercing, screeching noise. The big cat jumped backwards and growled before standing on its hind legs and pushing Sora. The keybearer fell back hard on the ground, grunting. Looking back up, he was sure it was the end. As the leopard stalked in, ready for the kill, the brunette raised the keyblade weakly as a last futile attempt of defense, although he knew it would not be enough to stop the animal.

Sora closed his eyes, ready for the blow as the leopard pounced towards him, and at the last minute thought he heard two distinct battle cries. One of them was a blood curdling yell, the other sounded more like a word. "Gatsuuga!"

* * *

Meanwhile, a not so happy blonde was laying on a tree branch. Naruto had fallen before anyone else, seeing as he was the one leaning closest to the door. It wasn't until a few branches and vines later did his descending stop.

Naruto woke up to pain. Gritting his teeth, the blonde took in his surroundings. The wide branch he was currently sprawled across was so high off the ground couldn't see the ground. Naruto quickly sat up and stared down. "That'd be a nasty fall," he muttered, rubbing the back of his head. Already, the aches throughout his body had become bearable.

A grunt sounded behind him. The shinobi froze. Whatever it was, it sounded big. _'Wait a minute!'_ Naruto thought to himself, trying to gather whatever courage there was in him. _'I'm the great Uzumaki Naruto! What am I scared for?' _With his new found confidence, the blonde turned around to face his visitor only to find himself staring at a hairy leg. Looking up the leg, Naruto saw a face he would have preferred to live with seeing.

Glaring down at him was the single biggest gorilla (not to mention real) Naruto had ever seen. Another gorilla, a female by the look and size of it stared at him with wide frightened eyes. Naruto glanced back up at the large silverback and saw the bared fangs. That's when he ran.

There was no way that overgrown monkey was going to get him. And his plan was going perfectly… until his foot got caught in a vine and tripped him. Naruto hung upside down under the branch contemplating what to do next. Those thoughts and plans were interrupted when the gorilla pulled him up and grabbed him. Naruto had no clue where they were going and didn't necessarily _want_ to go, but such things were not in his fortune to wish for at the moment; the fact that the gorilla's iron grip was around his waist, preventing him from running away again, proved that.

"This is just great," Naruto muttered as he was taken further into the thick jungle.

* * *

There was a drilling noise followed by a snarl from the leopard. Sora peeked an eye open and saw something he wouldn't believe had it been told by anyone else. Two gray whirlwinds were following the leopard around, occasionally running into it and pushing it to the ground. The cat glanced at Sora and back at the flying tornadoes, considering its chances. It thought it had a pretty good chance.

The leopard ducked under one of its gray attackers and jumped over the other, making a mad dash towards Sora. The keybearer raised his arms defensively, but found to need to when a man stepped in front of him and raised a spear, catching the leopard's teeth on the handle. The man was squatting like an ape, and had on nothing but a loin cloth. His long brown hair flew wildly as he fought for control with the big cat.

The leopard took one last glance at Sora, back to the two whirlwinds who starting its way again and back to the man with the spear. It decided the spiky haired boy wasn't worth it. The big cat jumped away from the man and out the window.

As soon as it did, the man lowered the spear and looked at Sora, but the keybearer wasn't looking at him. What had caught his interest was the fact that the two whirlwinds had stopped. It had turned out to be a boy and a small white puppy. The boy had on a gray jacket with fur lining the hood and cuffs. Truthfully, he looked like an Eskimo. He had slanted, animal-like eyes, red triangles going down both cheeks, and a feral grin as he picked up his dog.

"Good boy, Akamaru!" he said. The puppy barked in reply. The boy turned back to Sora and grinned at him. "We really saved your butt. Be thankful."

The keybearer glowered at him and was about to say something back, but the man spoke first. "Sabor, danger," he said to Sora.

"Um… thank you," he said to the man.

"Thank- you," he repeated, as if putting it to memory.

"Huh?" Sora asked, confused. "Uh, well, what is this place?"

"This place, this place," the man repeated again.

"This is the tree house," the boy called over to them. "But this is the jungle of Africa, I'm told. The 'deep jungle'."

"Okaaaay," Sora muttered. The boy glared at him. "Where did the others go?"

"Others?" the rude boy asked before the man could say anything. "There are no others!"

"Look," Sora started to explain. "I got separated from my friends. Have you seen them?" he asked slowly, so the ape-man would understand. He just stared at Sora questionably.

"I told you already!" the boy said, agitated now. "You're alone."

Sora ignored him. "Friends…" he said, exaggerating each syllable while holding his clenched hands to his chest.

The man imitated his stance and repeated him, "Friends!"

"Right! My friends!" Sora said, talking in an excited blur. "There's four of 'em! The loud one is Dona-" The keybearer stopped short. Why did he want to find _him_? Last time he checked, they weren't on speaking terms.

"Hmm?" the man seemed to question.

"Dona?" The boy asked. He was now beside the two and the puppy was resting in his jacket, his head peeking out over the zipper. "Who's that?"

"You know what? Never mind," Sora said, his tone indicating he didn't feel like talking about it. "I'm looking for my friends, Riku and Kairi."

"Look for Riku, friends?" the man asked.

"Right," Sora said, looking over his shoulder. He thought he had seen something.

"Kairi, friends?" the man said. As soon as he said her name, Kairi stood in the corner, looking straight at Sora.

"Uhh… Right," he said again and went back to looking at Kairi. What was she doing here? The boy gave him a look that suggested he was a lunatic. Couldn't he see her?

"What are you doing?" the dog boy asked.

At that moment, Kairi turned and walked out the door. "Friends, here," the ape man told him.

_That_ caught Sora attention. He looked away from Kairi for a moment. "Really?!" he and the boy asked at the same time.

The man grunted something that sounded like an animal noise.

Sora looked at the boy questionably, but received a shrug. "Huh?" he asked. The man repeated the grunting noise, staring at him, trying to get some unknown message across.

"Friends here," he told Sora.

"Not sure I understand but… show me!"

"You'll never get a straight answer from him. He speaks animal most of the time," the dog boy informed the keybearer.

"Take me to Riku and Kairi!" Sora pleaded.

"Tarzan!" the man grunted, gesturing to himself.

"And I'm… Sora," the keybearer told him.

The dog boy looked at them both. "Well, as long as we're making introductions, I'm Inuzuka Kiba and this is Akamaru," he said, gesturing to the little white dog in his jacket. Akamaru barked.

"Tarzan go!" the man, Tarzan, told him, getting excited.

Sora grinned. "Tarzan go, Sora go go!"

"Dude…" Kiba said, closing his eyes and pinching his nose. "Do you have any idea of what you just said?"

"What?" Sora asked.

"Never mind. Let's just get to Jane."

* * *

Goofy looked around from the rock he was sitting on. Donald was behind him, laying down. The two were in the middle of a bamboo thicket.

"Gwarsh!" Goofy said. "Where are we?" The birds answered him. "I sure hope Sora and the others are okay." The dog looked down at the ground, frowning with worry.

Donald sat up, an angry expression on his normally cranky face. "Aw! Who needs Sora? We can find the king without him!"

"But what about Naruto? And Shikamaru?" Goofy asked, sniffing.

Jiminy Cricket hopped out of his pocket. "I'm sure we'll run into them again! Don't worry, Goof."

"Okay, Jiminy."

Donald crossed his arms and glared at the ground. But instead of the dirt and grass of the jungle floor, the duck saw something else. It looked like bluish gray hair. "Huh?" Leaning down a bit closer, the head looked up at him. It was a gorilla. "Ahhhhh!!" the two yelled at the same time.

A sudden rustling in the bushes scared the gorilla away when Goofy and Donald looked in the direction of the noise. The gorilla paused for a moment to look back at the pair and dropped an orange cube before running off again.

Donald looked back at the retreating ape, but something sparkling on the ground caught his eye. "Ha!" he quacked.

"Donald," Goofy said, fear tinting his voice. The duck looked back at the noise. Whoever was making all the racket was coming closer. The two gulped, hoping it wasn't some wild animal.

What stepped out though wasn't what they were expecting. "Well, isn't this a surprise!" a voice called out in an English accent. A small, plump little man climbed out of the foliage and walked up to Donald and Goofy. "My, my, my! What species do you think they are, Clayton?"

"I have no idea, Professor," a deeper voice answered him. A tall man in a safari outfit walked out. In his hands, a rifle sparkled in the sun.

"Species?" Goofy asked.

The Professor gasped. "They're civilized!" Quickly he held out his hand. "I am Professor Porter, how do you do?"

"Uh… Good. I'm Donald and this is Goofy," the duck said, taking the strange man's hand in greeting.

"Oh! Jane must see this! Please, come with us!"

* * *

Tarzan opened the flap to the tent and held it briefly for Sora and Kiba before turning back. "Jane," he grunted out.

There was what looked like a camera in the middle of the tent, and, bent over the object, was a young woman.

"Tarzan!" she replied happily, in a distinct English accent, as she turned to look at her companions. "Oh! Who's this?" she asked upon seeing Sora.

"Just some random dude we picked up at the tree house," Kiba said, shrugging it off.

Sora glared at the dog boy then turned back to Jane. "Hi there. I'm-"

"Oh!" Jane interrupted him, leaning forward. "You speak English!" Sora turned to Tarzan in confusion who just turned back and stared at him. "So, then, obviously, you're not related to Tarzan… Are you here to study the gorillas? Or are you just passing by like Kiba?"

Sora was fixing to answer her when someone behind him spoke first. "Highly doubtful."

Just then, Clayton walked in, carrying his gun. Behind him, Professor Porter practically danced through, saying in an excited babble, "Jane, oh, Jane dear! You must see what we found!!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, Goofy and Donald walked in. "Sora!" Goofy yelled in relief. All three ran at each other.

"Goofy! Donald!" Sora yelled. But as soon as the duck and the keybearer's eyes met, the happiness stopped. "Hmph!" both grunted, crosses their arms over their chests and looking away. Goofy frowned. This wasn't how he had pictured their reunion.

"A circus of clowns!" Clayton growled, rolling his eyes. "Not much use for hunting gorillas." And with that he headed out of the entrance.

"Oh my!" the professor frowned. "That's not what we're here for at all."

"Mr. Clayton!" Jane said, displeasure obvious in both her face and tone. "We're _studying_ them, not hunting them! This is research." She sighed when it was obvious that the hunter wasn't listening.

"There, there dearest," Porter said, patting his daughter's shoulders. "It's alright. I'm sure Mr. Clayton knows perfectly well what we're doing here. I'm sure he means no harm!"

Jane sighed again before turning to her guests. "Well, the more the merrier. Do make yourselves at home."

Sora was still glaring at the tent wall before saying, "Well anyway…"

"I'm staying!" Donald and Sora said at the exact same time. "Huh!" They said again, glaring.

"Sora!" Goofy butted in before a fight could ensue. "Look what we found. Look at this." The knight chuckled as he opened his hands, revealing a reddish orange cube.

"What's that?" the keybearer asked.

"A gummi block used for ships like ours," Donald told him.

"So that means…"

Goofy grinned. "The King could be here, so we've got to work together!"

At that exact moment, another figure walked through the tent flap. "There you guys are. I've been looking for you. What a drag."

"Shikamaru?" Kiba said suddenly.

"Oh! You're back!" Jane said smiling and then explained. "He found the camp while Tarzan and Kiba were out."

"Nice to meet you, old boy!" the professor exclaimed, holding out his hand.

"So you're here too, Kiba? I was wondering if Naruto and I were the only ones," the lazy shinobi said after exchanging a handshake with Porter, then sat in one of the chairs.

"Naruto?" Goofy and Kiba asked.

"Oh no," Donald muttered.

Sora tapped his chin. "Oh yeah. Where is he? I didn't see him, did any of you?"

Everyone shook his head. No one had seen the blonde.

"Another friend of yours I presume," Jane said.

"Yeah. He's short, blonde, and loud." Sora informed her.

Both of the English researchers shook their head no.

Donald sighed. "We'll have to search for Naruto and the King together… For now!" he added, directing it toward Sora.

"Fine," the keybearer said curtly. "I'll let you tag along… For now!"

Outside of the tent, an eavesdropper grinned. So the little blonde brat was here. Wouldn't his employers be happy? Right away, he set off to get the proper equipment.

* * *

Tarzan, who had been quietly listening, suddenly spoke up. "Family maybe know."

Jane's face brightened up instantly. "You're right, Tarzan! They might know!"

"Who?" Shikamaru asked lazily.

"Tarzan grew up with gorillas," Kiba told his friend.

"Yes," Jane nodded. "He's speaking English quite well, but he's still learning."

Sora thought of the unintelligible word Tarzan had grunted out. It had sounded like an animal noise. "So he was speaking gorilla back there…? When he mentioned my friends."

"Ah, that's right. You're looking for you friend. Are there more?" Jane asked.

Sora nodded. "Riku… and Kairi. He said they were here! Then he said one word I didn't understand."

Professor Porter looked expectantly at his daughter. "Why don't we try the slide show?"

"That's a great idea, Daddy! We'll show Tarzan some slides and see if they match the word!"

"You think it will work?" Kiba asked.

"Anything could work, old boy!" Porter said in his excited manner, punching the shinobi's arm lightly.

Jane placed the first slide in the projection. A black and white photo of a castle shone onto the tarp screen across the room. Sora, who had been about to say something, paused as he took in the picture.

Kiba noticed the gesture. "What's wrong, Sora?" he asked.

"What?" the keybearer asked, snapping out of his sudden trance and coming back to the real world. "Um… Nothing."

Shikamaru gave a look that told he could see right through him. Sora sighed and explained. "This place… it just looks familiar. But how? I've never been off my island until now."

The others just shrugged it off and turned back to the projection. The rest of the slides hadn't been near as interesting. After the castle, it had been an old man squatting down to a child, then a gorilla, a ship sailing on the ocean, two men fencing, and last, a man presenting a lady with a bouquet of flowers.

Jane turned off the slide show and faced her friend. "Well, Tarzan?"

"Where are my friends, Riku and Kairi?" Sora asked.

Tarzan looked at the keybearer then looked down and shook his head. He didn't know. Sora was confused. Tarzan had _told_ him they were here. "But, I thought –"

"That leaves just one place," someone said from the entrance. Everyone looked up to see Clayton walking in. "Young man, we've been in this jungle for some time now," he continued. "But have yet to encounter anyone but Inuzuka… and he came across us." Sora blinked. What was this leading to? "I'd wager they're with the gorillas," Clayton said offhandedly. "But Tarzan refuses to take us to them."

"Really, Mr. Clayton," Jane said pointedly. "Tarzan wouldn't hide-"

"Then take us there," the hunter interrupted, speaking to the ape man. Tarzan glared at him. Clayton continued anyways. "Take us to the gorillas. Go-ril-las."

Tarzan turned and kept eye contact with Sora. Concern showed on his face. Concern for his family and friends. He didn't know what to do. Sora stared back, pleading with his eyes. Finally, Tarzan nodded. He'd help this boy find _his_ family.

"Really?" Professor Porter was ecstatic. This was what he was here for. To study the gorillas before the boat came back, but he wouldn't dare go against Tarzan's will. This was his home and Porter knew he wouldn't like it if someone came in uninvited and messed with his daughter. "You'll really do this for us?"

"Tarzan…" Jane started, a little concerned, "are you sure?" Clayton had always pressed him for information on where the gorillas were, and she didn't want Tarzan giving away anything unless he wanted to.

Tarzan nodded again. "Tarzan go see Kerchak."

"Kerchak?"

"He must be the leader," Clayton pointed out. "Perfect! I'll go along as an escort. After all, the jungle is a dangerous place." The hunter flashed a grin. This was just what he needed. Even if he didn't find that brat for those strangers, then he'd still have the gorillas… as long as their little ape cooperated.

"There's no need for that," Porter said. "After all, Tarzan knows this place like the back of his hand! I don't think he'd need you, Clayton."

The hunter frowned. This was a bit of a set back. "But- I- I mean-"

"We'll go with him," Sora said.

"Yeah!" Donald quacked. "It's our friends after all. We still need to find Naruto."

"I'll come too! I haven't seen the kid in forever! Plus Akamaru needs a walk," Kiba spoke up. The little puppy in his jacket barked in agreement.

"I'll stay here," Shikamaru said, yawning. "You all do whatever makes you happy." And with that said, the lazy ninja stretched out and started dozing on the couch.

"Is that all right, Tarzan?" Professor Porter asked.

Tarzan nodded in agreement. He could live that.

* * *

It hadn't taken very long to reach the point where Tarzan was going to talk to Kerchak. Sora, Donald, and Goofy had swung through the treetops on vines, following Tarzan's example. Kiba on the other hand thought it was funny that they didn't just jump through the trees.

"What are you doing?" Goofy had asked when Kiba had taken Akamaru out of his jacket instead of grabbing onto another vine.

"Giving Akamaru a walk," the Inuzuka stated simply. The little dog barked happily. "Just go ahead," Kiba told them, when they paused. So none of them expected to see Kiba jumping from branch to branch like an animal, howling out his enjoyment. But what surprised them most of all was the little white dog jumping right beside him, and actually spinning in circles before touching the next branch.

"How's he doin' that?" Goofy asked.

"He's friends with Naruto, remember?" Sora replied. "And he can do… different stuff, too."

The conversation was lost when the group saw Tarzan standing awkwardly on two legs looking up in the trees. Taking a closer look, Sora saw what he was staring at. Two gorillas stood on the branch above them, one female, one male. The silverback male glared down at them, as if he expected the boys to attack at any given moment.

Everyone, except for Tarzan, jumped when the silverback roared. "Tarzan! What is the meaning of this! Why are _they_ here?"

"Kerchak, I-"

"No! I have been lenient enough by looking away while you go and play with you little humans, but this is outrageous! I will not allow them to come this close to the nesting grounds!"

"Kerchak, please listen to me!" Tarzan called up to his leader. The gorilla growled softly. "I know the nesting grounds are secret," the jungle man told him hurredly, "but I trust them. You see, I want to help them because…." Until that moment, Tarzan hadn't been able to look at Kerchak, but now he stared him straight in the eyes. "Because… well, they need us."

The female looked at the silverback. "Kerchak, I don't think they mean any harm. If Tarzan trusts them, then they can't be bad. You know he hasn't done anything that would cause us to be in danger. That boy we found might be one of their friends. He's been very lonely. We can return him and-"

Kerchak snorted. "Enough, Kala." The female gorilla, Kala, looked down and spoke no more. "I won't hear anymore of this."

"Kerchak!" Tarzan grunted.

The gorilla simply stared at him. He turned his head away and growled out, "I'll let the boy go soon." Kerchak abruptly turned and headed in the direction of the tree house.

"Kerchak…?" Tarzan asked, question his leader's sudden behavior.

Kala looked at her son. "Something's wrong," she said quietly, before hurrying after her mate. Tarzan turned to stare after his family, worried.

"So, uh… did anybody get that?" Sora asked.

"No!" Donald said crossly. Goofy shook his head.

"Hey! I found it!" Kiba suddenly shouted.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy rushed over to the dog shinobi. "What!" they all asked.

"Naruto's sent!! It's faint but it's still here. He's got to be close by. Well, Tarzan?"

Tarzan looked briefly at his new friends. "Yes," he replied, speaking in English now. He turned back to the direction. Yes. He could sense it now. Something _was_ wrong.

"Come," he said quickly, heading after Kala and Kerchak.

"Is he going to the tree house?" Goofy asked.

Donald muttered. "He seemed pretty distracted."

"Who cares?" Kiba growled out, starting to run after Tarzan. "He knows where Naruto is!" Akamaru barked.

"Wait for us!" Sora called after him.

* * *

There it was; a young, female gorilla just moseying about. He was lucky to have started looking at the tree house. The Porters and the ape boy didn't even know he was here. At least he had found this one by his self.

Clayton took a quiet step forward and slowly raised his rifle. The gorilla watched a model of the globe as it spun it around; oblivious to the danger she was in. Clayton's finger inched toward the trigger. His aim was perfect and soon he'd have a stuffed gorilla to add to his collection back home in England.

He was suddenly startled by two shouts heading for either side of him. "Yeeeaaaaahhh!!" "Watch out!!" Clayton accidentally pulled the trigger when two forces slammed into him, but by that time, the gorilla had heard and ran up to the level above.

Clayton was less aware of the two masses pinning him down as he was of the huge silverback that had just shown up beside the small one. He shivered when he met the cold, hate filled glare.

"What's the big idea!?" Donald yelled.

"You idiot! You almost killed her!" the other figure on him yelled. Everyone turned when they heard the loud, rough voice. Everyone's faces brightened when they saw the spiky blonde sitting with his arms crossed glaring at Clayton with bright blue eyes.

"Hey there, kid," Kiba said, smirking. "Should have known that listening for you would be better than smelling for you."

Naruto looked up and acted like he'd seen them for the first time. "Hey!! Sora, Donald, Goofy! Oh… Hi, Dog Breath." Sora snickered and Kiba glared at him.

Everyone turned when Tarzan stalked by, heading for Kerchak. The silverback glared at him. "_This_ is how you protect our family?" he snarled, turning to leave.

"Wait, Kerchak. Please!" Tarzan shouted.

"Your friends will never see our nesting grounds," he said before heading out the door.

"Tarzan, I'm sorry, I-" the young gorilla started.

"No. It's not your fault, Terk. Go home. You don't want to get yourself in trouble."

Terk frowned, guilt filling her face. She looked up quickly and met Donald and Naruto in the eyes and nodded before following her leader out the door.

When they were gone, Tarzan turned back and glared pure hatred at Clayton. "You," he growled. "You almost killed Terk!"

Clayton, intimidated by the obviously much stronger man, started babbling. "You don't understand! I was only trying to…" He frowned, flustered. "Ah! A snake slithered by, you see!"

"Liar," Naruto muttered.

"It's true! I saved that poor gorilla's life."

Tarzan looked away and shook his. He wasn't sure what to believe anymore.

* * *

Yay!! I did it!! I added Professor Porter in there because, truthfully, I missed him when he wasn't in the game. He's so funny! I tried to get his personality right. I haven't seen that movie for awhile. And did you like how I gave the gorillas actual speaking parts? Eh, eh? Anyone ever wonder why they just stand there and stare at Tarzan when he's talking to them? Oh, I'm adding a little of Sakura into the next chapter, because we haven't seen her in awhile and I want to write her kicking the crap out of someone.

And now, I have two guest stars sitting back stage. Please give it up for Itachi and Kisame!! Yaaaay!! They walk out and take a seat

_S__o, how did you like showing up in this story? Go on, tell the truth! :D_

_Itachi: ... It sucked._

_Kisame: I didn't get to kill anyone. :'(_

_:D ...?? D: WHAT!!_

_Kisame: You didn't even write our names! How do you expect people to know it's us?!_

_Well, duh!! Shark face, large sword, tall wierd red eyes, scary, short, can make people wet their pants... . coughClaytoncough_

_Clayton (off screen): Hey! I resent that!_

_Itachi: What he means is, we want a bigger part._

_You do have a bigger part. You're like Organazation 13... with an offscreen plot..._

_Itachi: ..._

_Kisame: O.O That's it. We're leaving. C'mon Itachi._

_Itachi: Wait. I think we should thank her real quick. Evil Grin  
_

_Kisame: WHAT!! _

_Itachi glares at him _

_Kisame: Ooooohhh!! Okay!_

_Uh oh... WAIT!! I still have to do the preview for the next chapter!!_

_Itachi: Okay, but hurry up._

Clayton has found his bartering tool: a certain little loud blonde. But it doesn't seem like Naruto wants to be taken away from his friends again, especially when his new "comrades", the gorillas, are in trouble. Meanwhile, Sakura is learning more and more about the different worlds and the Heartless from her kidnapper and more and more about her new friends, Hayner, Pence, and Olette. But what happens when all of it is taken away with the arrival of a silver haired teen and a certain Uchiha? Who will win when good clashes against evil? Find out_ NEXT TIME_!

I am holding a contest.. sort of. I want YOU to name the next chapter! Tell me your ideas and which ever one I think is the best, the chapter will be dedicated to him or her! See yah then! ;) Runs away

_Kisame: Is she done yet?_

_Itachi: ... Crap._

_Kisame: What? _

_Itachi glares at him _

_Kisame:Oh... DANGIT!!_

_Itachi: Sigh C'mon. Let's go find her._

_Kisame: You bet we will. And when we do, she's gonna pay double!!_


	11. Another Author's Note Please read this

The first thing I have to say is: **I'M SORRY!!!!!**

No I'm not quitting the story. I'm actually 85% done with chapter 10. It's so late because I've had a seriously busy schedule and a bit of writer's block. But I'm seriously close to finishing. And it's long. I promise. Just keep this in mind- If you kill the author, you'll never know what happens next. ^^' I'd like to live please.

Next topic is: I have the list of characters that will appear in the different worlds.

Wonderland- Shikamaru

Deep Jungle- Kiba

Olympus Colosium- Rock Lee

Holloween Town- Kakashi

Neverland- Hinata

MAYBE's (I need to know if you really want to see this, otherwise I won't waste my time):

Agrabah- Sand Sibs (original, huh?)

Hollow Bastion- Sannin (not so sure of this)

-- And since many of you have been asking, Akatsuki (more than likely just Itachi and Kisame) will show up throughout the different worlds. In the sequel (following the KH2 plot) they will have a much larger role with Organization 13. I do not plan on put O13 in until KH2, like in the storyline.

Topic number three is: For every 10th chapter, I will hold a contest. Whoever wins, I will add you to my favorite authors and advertise your site if you would like.

I only have two titles for chapter 10 (see Author's Note on the bottom of Chap. 9 for details). I need a few more.


	12. Wild Goose Chase

Hello everyone! I finally finished it! And like I promised it's very long! Now the winner of the contest was... Uh oh! Hold that thought! -Hides-

_Itachi: I was sure she would be here. Have you found her yet, Kisame? Kisame?_

_Kisame: Hey look Itachi! People!_

_Itachi: Come on! We don't have time to waste. We have to find Sabrepaw. First because of the flast chapter and second because she took so long to update._

_Kisame: Aww... :'( Could we at least do all the disclaimers?_

_Itachi: Fine. But make it quick._

_Kisame: Yay! :D Alright! Sabrepaw AKA CrazyPirateMouse does not own Naruto or Kingdom Hearts._

_Itachi: Are you done now?_

_Kisame: No! I gotta announce who won!_

_Itachi: Grrr...._

_Kisame: And the winner for naming chapter ten is.......**winddragonpowers**!!!! Congratulations! This chapter is dedicated to you!!! Sabrepaw will put your profile address on her profile and will make you one of her favorite authors!!!!_

_Itachi: All right. Can we go now? We've got to go torture her._

_Kisame: Fine._

_-Both walk off-_

-Comes out of hiding- Well there you have it. Congratulations winddragonpowers! And now... on with the story!!!!

**A Ninja and a Keybearer**

_Chapter 10: Wild Goose Chase_

-Twilight Town-

Sakura sat in her seat with a bored expression on her face. It was dinnertime and she was waiting on her "grandfather". Her train of thought finally turned to Ansem. The man had been acting weird as of late. Like he was distracted by something. But every time she had asked, he had played it off as nothing, knowing full well that a kunoichi, such as her, was trained to see through deception.

Sakura drummed her fingers on the table and thought about how her life had suddenly turned. She had always wondered what it would be like if she had not chosen to become a shinobi and was living a normal teenage life. Now she knew.

She had spent the last week hanging out with her new friends, meeting up at the Usual Spot, as they called, which was really just a back alley filled with their little knickknacks.

Sakura smiled. It was nice to not have to worry about watching your back all the time. But still… she missed the excitement and danger of her old life; the praise and the pleasure of defeating an enemy; Even the shame of making a mistake, promising to do it right the next time.

"Dang it, Naruto. You better hurry up your little adventure because I want to go home," she muttered

'_**Yeah! And if you don't I'll make you EAT the dirt you stand on!!!' **_Inner Sakura raved.

-Somewhere in the Deep Jungle-

"Achoo!!" Naruto sneezed and grinned. "Someone's talking about me."

"Someone must be planning your death," Kiba taunted.

"SHUT UP, DOG BREATH!"

"MAKE ME, DEADLAST!!"

-Back to Twilight Town- ^^'

"Sorry to keep you waiting," said a voice coming into the room. The pink haired kunoichi turned to see Ansem walking in. "I had some business to check on."

"Liar," Sakura muttered. This guy was starting to act just like Kakashi-sensei. _'At least he's not making up stupid, unbelievable excuses. A black cat? Come _on_!'_

"What was that?"

"Nothing, sir." Sakura sighed before asking the same question she had asked all week, starting the usual conversation. "So what were you doing?"

And he answered with the same answer as usual. "Nothing of importance really. You wouldn't really be interested in it. Y'know, grownup stuff."

"But I _am_ interested. And back in my village, I _am_ considered an adult."

"Yes. In your village, but this is another world. Here thirteen-year-olds are considered children. And children are too naïve to know or care about adult business."

And as usual, Sakura would glare at him. "I know a lot of things 'children' do not know, or probably ever will in this world. I was the smartest of my classmates from the academy, except maybe for Shikamaru. And for your information I am dragged into adult business. It's called missions."

"But for now you are under my care and I do not consider you as an adult, so you are not obliged to act like one. Enjoy your meal," he said, finishing the conversation with his usual smile.

* * *

"It's like he doesn't trust me!" Sakura lamented to her friends in the Usual Spot. She was currently lounged on a box and staring up at the ceiling.

"My dad does that a lot to me, too," Hayner told everyone, shaking his head as if he had the saddest life of all (as usual). Everyone ignored him.

Olette frowned. "That really sucks, Sakura."

"Hey!" Pence cried, and in a spur of inspiration, jumped up excitedly. "Maybe we can help! We can go over and spy on him and stuff. Then we can know what he's up to!"

Sakura started to panic. Ansem had specifically told her that he didn't want anyone to be in the mansion… but… this could be his punishment for keeping secrets from her. He would learn that she would find out some way or another. A smile slowly spread across her face. "Let's do it!"

* * *

Sakura jumped from branch to branch in an attempt to get to the gates before her friends could. She needed to check that it was clear and she couldn't have them seeing her at her best with inhuman (to them) strength and speed.

'_One more jump,' _the kunoichi thought, and indeed in one last leap she cleared the forest and stood in front of the gates. Without a second's hesitation, Sakura ran inside the old mansion and went as fast as she could go through the hallways checking for any signs of life. She sighed in relief when she didn't see anything.

Making her way to the gate at a much slower rate, Sakura saw Hayner, Pence, and Olette waiting for her. She quickly opened it up and gave the okay sign.

"Alright!" Hayner exclaimed. "Time to find out what's happening in here!!"

In the process of one second, the blonde had a face full of dirt and a rather large bump on the top of his head. "Be quiet, baka!!" Sakura hissed.

-Deep Jungle-

"How could you _do_ such a thing!!"

Clayton held up his hands in defense. "Now, Miss Porter, as I told you I was not aiming at the gorilla."

"Wanna bet?" Naruto mumbled. The young ninja hadn't bought the story that Clayton had been trying to sell. Naruto knew what he had seen, and this time he wasn't alone in opinion. Donald had snorted every time the hunter had tried to convince them that he hadn't been trying to kill Terk. Even Kiba wasn't buying it, but he hadn't been there first hand, so he couldn't be sure.

But no one's disbelief could compare to that of Jane when _she_ heard the news. The young researcher had gone ballistic.

"Please, dear! Let us try to look at this from all sides of the story," Professor Porter tried to reason. "You never know. This may be all a big misunderstanding."

Jane looked at her father and smiled. "Yes, Daddy. I'll try," she said sweetly. As she turned back to Clayton, the hard edge came back to her voice. "You are not to go near the gorillas again." The young woman was eye to eye with the older man and inches from his face.

The hunter inched backwards, not liking the close proximity. He held up his hands as if to hold her off while saying, "All because of one mishap? Come, now…" Clayton paused when he saw Jane with her hands on her hips, Sora, Donald, and Goofy with their arms crossed, Tarzan in a crouching position, and Kiba on his knees holding back Akamaru, a scowl plastered on all of their faces. It was obvious they no longer believed him.

Off to the side Naruto was gritting his teeth and had tightly balled his fists, not noticing that his nails were digging into his skin. _'Maybe if we use Rasengan on him, he'll shut up…'_ a dark voice repeated over and over again in his head. At first the blonde wasn't sure what it was. Was it his sub consciousness talking to him? He doubted it. This sounded like something Kyuubi would suggest, and knowing the fox, he probably was using his sub consciousness to get to him. The nine-tailed bijuu would give anything for a nice fight.

Naruto glared at the floor, hoping beyond all hope it would just swallow him up. He knew he couldn't keep control much longer, partially because he _wanted_ to stick a Rasengan into the man. "I have to go," he managed to mutter through his teeth before running out the tent flap.

Just as he was running out, Shikamaru walked in. He stared questionably after the blonde. "What was that about?" he asked. When no one answered him, the lazy shinobi noticed the current situation. Shikamaru walked over to the professor, the one who looked less likely to attack him if he said something wrong, and asked him what was going on. Porter filled him in quickly.

Clayton forced a grin, chuckled, and started to back out of the tent. "Oh, dear. That didn't go well at all," the professor stated in a weak voice.

* * *

Clayton's smiled turned to a frown as he walked outside. "What am I doing with these imbeciles?" he mumbled to himself. "Blasted gorillas! I don't need help. I'll hunt down every last one of them myself! I'll track them down somehow! I'll stake my life on it."

With those last words, the hunter started to put his pipe in his mouth, when a cold voice called out. "Are you willing to follow up on that?"

Clayton freaked out and brought up his gun quickly. He fumbled for the trigger, scared out of his mind. A shot could be heard echoing throughout the jungle, but the bullet had hit nothing. Clayton stared as he saw two figures glaring at him from the cover of the trees.

"We just came by to see how you were doing," the taller one said. "It looks like you left our little prize run right through your fingers. Job well done."

The shorter one stared at him with those strange red eyes. "If you cannot help us, then we will not help you. Uzumaki Naruto is loose in the jungle now. I do not like picking up other people's messes. It makes me mad."

Clayton was panicking now. "Please, just give me a second chance! I'll get him, I swear!"

"How about it, Itachi?" the taller one said, turning to his companion. "If he fails, we can always kill him. Please?" Clayton gulped. Despite the light voice that man always used, the hunter would not like to meet him in a dark alley.

The short one, Itachi, sighed. "Very well, Kisame." He turned back to Clayton and spoke to him again. "Be warned. If you do not catch Uzumaki and bring him back to us _alive_, then I will not hesitate to let my partner have his fun. If he is dead or dying, we will kill you on the spot. I will not tolerate failure from underlings."

"Y-yes, sir!" Clayton gulped, looking at the ground.

"Oh, and one more thing. Here is some help I found in the jungle. They may prove to be useful to you." Clayton stared at the black twitching heartless in front of him. The hunter looked up to thank the man but found they were nowhere to be seen.

"Right then," he said aloud, quickly getting up. The group of heartless that had quietly shown up watched him as he looked around. Clayton grinned as he found what he was searching for: a fresh footprint that belonged to a child running into the forest. Clayton strapped his gun over shoulder and started in the direction. _'Time to start hunting.'_

* * *

Sakura was annoyed. They had tried most of the rooms and they had found nothing. Of course, it didn't help that she was the only one skilled in stealth. "Don't make so much noise!" she hissed for what seemed like the millionth time. As usual, it was Hayner.

"Sorry! I stepped on a loose board," he whispered loudly, backing up a little. His head was still throbbing from earlier.

Olette studied her blueprints for the house. Taking out a red marker, she crossed a big X over the old dining room. "That leaves two more," she said quietly. "They're both upstairs."

Sakura leaned over and glanced at the paper. "I say we check out this one," she said, pointing at the library. "No one's ever in the white room and it's never off limits to anyone."

"But wouldn't that just be overlooking it? I mean, maybe he's trying to get rid of any suspicion," Pence pointed out.

The pink haired kunoichi turned her emerald gaze on him. "Yeah, that's true, but he never locks the white room, just the library."

"All right it's settled!" Hayner exclaimed, trying to get back the role of the leader. "We'll go check out the library!!" Three angry teenagers turned to him and glared, instantly shutting him up.

As it was, the library was locked. Three of the four friends cursed their bad luck, but Sakura cursed the fact that she was going to have to break something. "Stand back," she growled, a look of pure irritation on her face. She raised an arm and drew it back crying out, "Shannaro!!!!" before turning the door to splinters.

"Oh sure. _She_ can yell, but _I _can't even make a single comment," a certain blonde grumbled. Pence and Olette ignored him for the most part, just staring at what was left of the expensive oak door.

"Why didn't you just do that before we came over?" Pence asked.

"Because," Sakura said, smoothing out her dress and dusting herself off, "I didn't want to get in trouble by breaking the house."

The inside of the room was a wonder to behold. Every wall was covered by a shelf that stretched all the way up to the ceiling and piled with books. A table was in the middle of the room with an elaborate candlestick as the only decoration. The four kids started looking everywhere. Behind books, under the table, and behind the window curtains. In the end, each place was a dead end. Sakura, Hayner, and Olette stood in the middle of the room discussing what they should do next. Pence, meanwhile, was studying a statue on one of the bookshelves.

"Hey, guys," he called out to his friends. "Did you notice that this statue, the only one in here, is facing down towards the table?" All three of them rushed over to examine it, but the dark haired boy wasn't done with his observation. "Also, I noticed that there's writing on the table. I wonder what it- Whoa!!"

At that precise moment Pence had laid his hand on the three gold insignias engraved into the wood with gold ink. In reaction to his touch, the table disappeared and the floor began to sink. He cried out again, scared to death. Thinking quickly, Sakura grabbed his hand and flung him up, sending the boy crashing into Hayner. Olette giggled helplessly as the blonde tried to get his much larger friend off of him.

"Look at this," Sakura said, ignoring the two boys. "It's like a secret lab!"

"Cool!" Olette said while joining her only female friend. "Let's check it out!" She rushed down the stairs followed closely by Sakura and stared at the two doors. "Which one?" she asked.

Sakura stared at them, trying to make a decision. "I dunno…" she mumbled.

"Why not that one?" Hayner said pointing to the door on the left. He and Pence had finally untangled themselves.

"All right," Sakura shrugged. Checking the door, she found that it was locked. 'Here we go again.' The kunoichi felt along the metal frame until she had found a weak point, and, with one strong punch, made a hole large enough for someone Pence's size to crawl through. "Let's go."

* * *

"Why did we even come here?" Sasuke grumbled. He'd much rather be back at Hollow Bastion training than looking for a girl. Even they did have a clue on the whereabouts of one of his teammates.

"Because Maleficent said this is where Kairi is," Riku told him again.

The two were walking away from the Sandlot, leaving behind them the Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee beaten to a pulp. It had been quite easy actually.

_-Flashback-_

"You two! What are you doing in Twilight Town?"

Sasuke and Riku looked back to see three teenagers and a blob-man-thing glaring at them. "We're looking for a friend." Riku answered him.

Seifer scowled at him. "What's your name?" he growled out.

Riku, smiled at him patiently. "I'm Riku and this is Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke just stared off into space. He didn't want deal with this. The sooner they finished, the soon they'd get back. Fuu's eyes widened when she looked at him, or rather his forehead.

"Seifer," she muttered, getting her leader's attention. She pointed at Sasuke's headband. "The same."

Seifer turned his attention to the boy, who had turned his attention to Fuu, the smallest bit of confusion showing on his features.

"What did you say?" Sasuke asked.

"That headband," Seifer interrupted. "Where did you get it? Did you steal it?"

"No, it was given to me," the Uchiha said coldly.

"Riiight. I'll bet you stole it from the new girl. As annoying as she is, I will not allow theft in my town. Not while I'm leader of Twilight Town's Diciplinary Committee."

"What girl?" Sasuke asked suddenly, very much out of character. Seifer ignored the question and rushed at the raven-haired boy with a struggle weapon. Konoha's top rookie easily blocked the thrust and grabbed Seifer's shirt, pulling him closer. "What girl?" he repeated in a low voice laced with venom.

The older boy smirked. "Like you don't know. It's kinda hard to miss her, what with the pink hair and all." Sasuke glowered at him.

"What's her name?"

"Haruno Sakura. I didn't get anything else out of the smart alack."

The shinobi smirked. "That's fine with me. I only needed her name." And with that said, Sasuke let go of Seifer, dumping him on his butt, and walked away.

"Hey!" the blonde yelled. "I'm not done with you! Rai, Fuu, Vivi, you know what do you!"

"Yes, sir, Seifer!" Rai shouted. He rushed at Riku and Sasuke.

"So, which one do you want?" the Genin asked.

Riku smiled mischievously. "I'll take the leader. He's getting on my nerves, and he needs some lessons in sword fighting, too."

Sasuke held a stance similar to a certain green clad taijutsu master, with one palm held out in a beckoning gesture and the other behind his back. 'I won't even have to use ninjutsu on this guy,' he thought smugly as Rai charged him.

"Ha!" the big teenager yelled as he threw a strong punch at the young boy that would have sent him sprawling… if it had hit. He scratched his head in confusion. The kid had just been right in front of him. Where could he have gone? Sasuke reappeared right behind him and gave a strong kick at his neck. Rai fell to his knees and clutching his neck.

"Never let your opponent out of your sight," a cold voice muttered in his ear, right before a fist came towards his face, knocking him out cold.

Sasuke turned to Fuu, a smirk playing on his lips. "You're turn." Unaffected, Fuu balled her hands into fists and waited for Sasuke to make the first move.

Meanwhile, Seifer was having a hard time landing a hit on his silver haired opponent. The blonde growled in annoyance when he realized that this Riku-guy was _toying _with him!

Riku smirked. This was too easy! So far, all that was required of him was to move out of the way of Seifer's blows. Finally the blonde cried out in anger, "Get a weapon and fight already!!!" Riku grinned widely.

"Fine. You asked for it," he said as he picked one of the struggle weapons off of a nearby rack. Riku made a show of checking each one and deciding which would help him best. He chuckled when he saw Seifer steaming with impatience.

"Would you just get something?!"

Riku sighed dramatically. "I guess this one will have to do," he said as he grabbed a struggle sword used mostly for attack. He wouldn't need to defend as much if this was all the talent the blonde idiot showed.

Seifer watched as Riku shifted his weight to one foot and stared at him lazily. "What?" the blonde demanded. To him it seemed like the silver haired teenager was insulting him by not putting up his guard, which was, in fact, what he intended.

"Just waiting on you." Riku grinned cheekily. "You sure do take awhile."

"That's it!!!" Seifer screeched. "I was gonna take it easy on you, but I just changed my mind!"

"Good. That means this will get slightly interesting."

Enraged, Seifer charged. He'd had enough of this stranger's tough talk. Riku sidestepped right before his blonde opponent hit the spot he'd been standing in and hit him on the back. Seifer fell to the ground with the blow. Riku smirked at him when he got back up to his feet. "You may be the best swordsman here, but you've never seen _real _skill."

With those words said, Riku began to lay Seifer with an onslaught of combos. The leader of the Twilight Town's Disciplinary Committee didn't stand a chance. In less than a minute he was down and out cold. "That wasn't the least bit fun," Riku muttered.

Turning he saw that Sasuke was up against Fuu. Unlike her hothead-idiot partner, she was quick and agile. She attacked with strategy and blocked persistently, but even her fancy footwork was no match for Konoha's number one rookie.

Sasuke smirked. "I have to admit, you do have _some_ skill," the Genin complemented her. Fuu pretended like she hadn't heard and just dodged the punch he had sent at her. She was already tiring, seeing as she lacked the endurance of a ninja.

Sasuke bluffed a swing to the right and waited for her to dodge. As soon as she had, he tripped her, making her fall to the ground hard.

Fuu wouldn't have normally taken the fall so hard, but she was tired and figured she was going to lose anyways. What was the point of getting up? And even if Seifer got mad at her for forfeiting, what was he gonna do about it?

Sasuke turned to Vivi and glared. The little boy was scared. He had seen how easily these two had taken out his comrades, all of whom were _much_ better fighters than he was. "She lives at the old mansion," he told them in defeat.

"Who?" Riku asked.

"Your friend Sakura. She lives at the old mansion past the woods. She's never told anyone, but I've followed her there. She's very fast, just like you," said Vivi, pointing to Sasuke.

Sasuke acknowledged this information with a slight nod, showing that it was exactly who he thought it was. "Where is the old mansion?" Riku asked.

Vivi brought them to the end of Twilight Town and pointed the way to the old abandoned mansion. "It's just past the woods," he told them again before running off to check on his friends.

* * *

Sora, Donald, and Goofy ran outside of the tent to investigate the sudden gun shot and possibly find Naruto… again.

From across the camp, the three friends saw a gorilla, the same female that had been there when Tarzan had talked to Kerchak. But what was more surprising was the fact that she was surrounded by monkey shaped heartless. Sora cried out and immediately charged into battle, Donald and Goofy close behind him. A few good attacks finished them off quickly.

Kala looked at her saviors and motioned for them to follow her before running off through the jungle.

Kiba and Akamaru ran out of the tent followed closely by Shikamaru and Tarzan. "What happened?" the Inuzuka asked quickly.

"There was a gorilla surrounded by heartless! We just saved her, but she ran off that way!" Sora said, pointing in the direction Kala had gone. "I think she wanted us to follow her!"

"What about Naruto?" Shikamaru asked. "We need to find him before he gets into trouble… again."

Akamaru barked suddenly. "He went that way," Kiba translated, pointing in the opposite direction. "Come on we need to go get him, like Shikamaru said."

"Yeah, but what if the gorilla gets hurt. We need to follow her, too." Goofy pointed out.

"Man, you guys are troublesome," the lazy ninja said. "It's a simple matter of splitting up. Kiba and I will follow Naruto's trail seeing as he left a while ago and we're faster than all of you. Not to mention we can sniff out his trail. Tarzan, you go with them and follow the gorilla and see what she wanted you to do. Okay?" Tarzan nodded to show he understood before rushing off after Kala, Sora, Donald, and Goofy close behind him.

"Come on, Lazy! Let's go," Kiba yelled while Akamaru barked in agreement.

"What a drag," Shikamaru grumbled.

* * *

Sora was the first to run into the bamboo thicket. Kala was in the middle of the thicket waiting for them. Tarzan ran up to her and gave her gorilla hug.

"Is everything okay?" he asked his mother.

"Tarzan! Thank goodness. The family's in danger! One of the-" a twig snapping interrupted her in the middle of her sentence. "What was that?" Kala asked fearfully.

"It may be Sabor. I hear she's still sneaking around somewhere. Just go. We'll catch up. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Okay. I'll be at the cliffs near the nesting ground. Meet me there," she said before she ran off.

Sora had started run after her when Tarzan grunted out, "No."

"What is it?" Donald asked him.

"Danger," the ape-man replied.

Everyone immediately brought out their weapons and stood on guard.

A low growling could be heard in the bushes and just a minute later a leopard leaped out of the thicket. Tarzan stared deep into the eyes of Sabor, willing her to charge.

Sora and the others jumped at the sound of snarling roar, but it was not the big cat that had uttered the sound. On the contrary, it was Tarzan himself. Sabor hesitated for a moment, spooked by his sudden snarl, but a moment afterwards and she lunged at the group, ready to for the kill.

Sora immediately brought his keyblade up to block the big cat, and just in time, too. Sabor jumped back and stalked around the group before lunging at Goofy who repelled the attack with his shield. Sensing she was losing, the cat jumped into the thicket. "Wait for it," Sora muttered.

Sabor jumped out with a snarl! "THUNDER!!" Donald shouted, sending a group of lightning bolts around the leopard. She paused for a moment to shake off the pain, but that was all Tarzan needed. Racing toward her on his knuckles, the ape-man raised up the arm that held his spear and ran her through. Sabor staggered for a second before finally collapsing to the ground, dead.

* * *

Terk ran through the forest. He was after her! He wanted to finish her off for good! The gorilla knew that if she found Tarzan, he would stop the threat. He would save her. He had been hanging around with the humans for a while now and she hoped he'd be there now.

Terk hesitated when she saw that the camp was swarming with heartless, but the sound of footsteps behind her urged her to run through. They were less of a threat than he was.

Jane gasped as something barreled its way through the tent flap and next thing she knew she was sitting on the ground staring up at a gorilla. She almost cried with delight, but when she saw the fear and distress in its face she felt her joy dissipate.

There was the sound of boots crunching the dirt beneath just outside the tent. Jane held the gorilla close as she stared up in horror as the threat walked in.

* * *

Naruto lay in the tree and listened to the sounds of nature while blowing off some steam. He couldn't believe that Clayton would just stand there and lie like that. He was pretty sure that the next he saw he wouldn't be able to control himself and wind up actually hurting him, if not worse.

He sighed and stared at the clouds. Shikamaru was right. Cloud watching _was _calming... not that he'd admit that or anything.

The animals suddenly became quiet. If Naruto had been a normal civilian he more than likely wouldn't have noticed that small detail, but being trained as a ninja did help put him on alert. The blonde shinobi stayed very still, trying to blend in with his surroundings as best as he could.

"Stupid girl. You should have just let me go find the gorillas. But you didn't. And now look at you. Completely helpless. It figures I guess. However, I may be able to use you to blackmail your little ape friend." Naruto chanced a peek over the edge of the branch to see Clayton marching along the floor muttering to himself, but what really caught the Genin's attention was seeing Jane draped over the hunter's shoulder like a rag doll.

"Why that no good, two timing son of a…" Naruto growled. He didn't think he'd be able to hold back now. He hated traitors. Clayton paused a moment, having heard the sound.

"Is that you, sir?" the man called out. "I haven't found the blonde idiot yet, but-but I will! In fact, I working on it right now!" Clayton gave out a fake smile. "P-please don't hurt me!"

Naruto jumped down from the tree and glowered at the hunter. "I don't think you'll have to worry about anyone hurting you once I show you real pain," he said in a low voice, cold enough to send chills down Clayton's back. Although he was glad it wasn't his strange employers, he wasn't sure if he wanted to face this new threat, small as it seemed. Naruto continued. "Hand over Jane and you might be able to escape with what's left of your life."

Clayton scowled. No boy should speak to his elders and betters like that, no matter how dangerous they were. "Now listen here. I've had just about enough of this!" And with that said a he set Jane down and quickly brought his gun to Naruto's head. "Be still and maybe I'll let _you_ live," although a small voice reminded him that Naruto was wanted _alive_.

Before the boy could even reply, Clayton brought the butt of his gun to the back of Naruto's scull and the shinobi knew no more.

* * *

Looking out from her jungle prison, Jane hugged her knees tight and looked over at the sprawled figure of Naruto on the ground. "Tarzan," she managed to utter out, hoping beyond all hope he'd come and save her.

* * *

Sora ran through the bamboo forest, followed closely by his companions. Suddenly, Tarzan stopped. Everyone looked back at him, somewhat confused by his sudden halt.

"Something wrong," he said. And without any warning, he darted back towards the camp.

Tarzan immediately ran to the tent and threw the flap aside to find the professor sitting on the ground crying.

"Where's Jane?" he asked, his voice almost rising to a shout.

"She's gone," was all he said.

At that moment Sora, Donald, and Goofy ran in. "What happened?" Sora demanded.

Goofy, being as kindhearted as he was, helped the old man to his feet and sat him down on the couch. He quickly got a cup of tea and offered it to Porter, who took it gratefully. After a couple of quick sips, the man had calmed down enough to speak clearly. "I was studying some plants on the far side of the camp and on my way back I heard a scream. Naturally, I ran to see what it was, but by the time I'd gotten there, Jane…" at this point Professor Porter started sobbing. Goofy patted his on the back and looked up at his friends.

"We gotta do somethin' about this," he said.

Sora and Donald nodded in agreement. "We gotta find Jane!" the magician exclaimed.

"Something coming," Tarzan suddenly said, grabbing everyone's attention.

"What's wrong, Tarzan?" Sora asked.

"Jane, danger."

"But where is she?" Donald asked, a bit annoyed. "We can't help her unless we know her location!"

Tarzan closed his eyes and listened to the sounds of the forest. He listened to the chattering birds who were discussing their latest chicks. He listened to the hippos making small talk about the weather. But when he listened to monkeys, he realized they were talking about the human and gorilla near the Sky Box.

Opening his eyes, Tarzan turned to the group and said confidently, "Jane near tree house. Terk, too."

Sora looked at his friends. "Sounds like trouble. Let's go." And with that said, all four ran out of the tent and headed for certain danger.

* * *

Kiba and Akamaru bent their heads to the ground, sniffing. "Did you find it, yet?" Shikamaru asked from up in the tree, so as not to get in the way of the trackers.

Kiba growled. "No," he replied curtly. They had lost Naruto's scent not too long ago, and now they were struggling to retrace.

Shikamaru yawned before saying, "He must have realized that we would come looking for him and decided to mask his scent. He _is_ pretty good at stealth, you know." Kiba just grunted in agreement. Akamaru suddenly started howling.

"What is it, boy?" Kiba asked excitedly. The little barked at him. The Inuzuka hollered in delight. "We found it!"

"Lead the way," his companion told him. And without any further prompting, the dog boy ran in the direction of the tree house, followed closely by his genius friend.

* * *

Tarzan ran ahead of the group, showing them the quickest and easiest ways through the jungle. He had no time to waste. The only human girl he had ever met- and perhaps even loved (if the Professor had explained the emotion, that even now pulsed in his very soul, correctly)- was in danger.

Tarzan jumped down from another tree and was prepared to leap onto the next when he heard Sora yelling after him. "Tarzan! Wait up!" Looking back, he realized that his new friends were way behind him.

"Tarzan?" came a weak voice. "Tarzan!" The ape-man turned and saw Jane, sitting on the ground and shivering.

"Jane!" He ran to her and reached through the branches concealing her from him. She grabbed onto his arms and a look of complete trust and tranquility appeared on her face. If Tarzan was here, she'd be safe.

"Tarzan," Goofy called out. "Where'd yah go?"

"Here!" he yelled back.

The trio raced down to find their friend near the caged girl and, much to their surprise, a certain orange clad ninja.

"Naruto!" Goofy said, smiling. The blonde stirred from unconsciousness. He sat up groggily and looked at the people in front of him with blurry eyes.

"Sora?" he mumbled, rubbing the back of his head. Man what a headache!

"Yeah! We're here! What happened though are you two okay?"

Jane shivered and pressed herself as close as she could get to Tarzan. "Clayton came to the tent, and… that's the last thing I remember! I know that Terk ran to safety, probably to find you."

"Hey! You guys!" someone yelled. The group looked up and saw Kiba and Akamaru leaping from branch to branch, Shikamaru not far behind them, headed straight in their direction. "Is Naruto there? We caught his scent!"

"Yeah, the idiot's right here!" Donald quacked at them.

"HEY!" the said idiot yelled at him.

Shikamaru looked at him through lazy eyes. "Looks like you're well. We got kinda worried when Akamaru smelled that hunter."

"Clayton?" Sora asked.

Naruto nodded. "He knocked me out when I tried to stop him from taking Jane."

The birds squawked out a warning overhead. Tarzan listened intently and his friends couldn't help but notice the worry etching itself on his face.

"What is it, Tarzan?" Jane asked quietly.

"Gorillas trapped." He listened again. "Man with fire stick."

"Clayton," Naruto said narrowing his eyes.

"We have to help the gorillas!" Sora said dramatically, cutting through the branches and vines imprisoning Jane and Naruto. Immediately the girl embraced her jungle warrior.

"Let's go kick some butt," Kiba said, grinning in excitement.

* * *

Clayton smirked as the heartless herded the last gorilla into the corner. About fifteen of the beasts stared at him in fear as the ape-like heartless danced in delight. This was just too easy! He didn't need any help from anyone! Even though he was kinda lent the heartless. But keeping that out of his mind, he brought up his gun and nearly laughed when the gorillas scattered. He pointed it at a female gorilla that just stood there staring at him. Kala froze with fear. She was sure she was going to die.

And ear piercing roar echoed in front of her, momentarily starling the hunter. Kala looked up at Kerchak who was chasing away the heartless. No one threatened his family without a fight. He snorted at his mate making sure she ran away before continuing his pursuit of the heartless. Clayton growled and cocked his rifle aiming at Kerchak. "No!" Sora yelled out.

The hunter lowered his gun and stared at the boy. An entourage of his friends ran up behind him. Clayton just stared at them.

"Drop the gun, Clayton!" Naruto yelled.

"Clayton?" Sora asked when the hunter didn't respond.

"Not Clayton," Tarzan grunted beside him.

"What did he say?" Kiba asked.

Tarzan grunted something in gorilla. Sora recognized it as the word from the tree house. "Not Clayton!" he said in English.

"I don't care who he is!" Donald shouted. "THUNDER!" Clayton staggered back as the lighting bolts struck home.

"Gatsuuga!" Kiba yelled, forming the two whirlwinds with Akamaru and heading straight for the man. The hunter tried to move, but found that his legs were frozen still.

"Kagemane no Jutsu: success," Shikamaru said, smirking at the man's distress. Naruto rushed at Clayton and gave him quite a few good punches.

"That one's for Terk! That's for Jane! And this is for you!" the shinobi yelled. Sora leapt into the air and brought his keyblade down for a final blow.

Clayton staggered back and glared at his opponents. He wasn't finished yet. He brought his gun down and immediately everyone was on guard. "Hmph," the hunter grunted as he brought his gun back up. Everyone stared in horror as the wall behind him exploded and the ground shook beneath them, but when they looked around for an opponent, they saw none.

"Where is it?" Donald asked irritably. Tarzan stood there for a moment gritting his teeth before charging, but before he was even five feet in front of Clayton, something threw him back to the ground.

"Tarzan!" Kiba asked worriedly.

Shikamaru scowled. "What was that?"

The group turned their attention back to the hunter to see he was riding an invisible mount. "Shika! Can you use Kagemane on that guy?" Naruto asked.

Shikamaru shook his head. "No. I can't if I can't see it. There's no shadow."

"Looks like we'll have to guess then," Kiba said with a daredevil grin. "Come on Akamaru!" The two started spinning again and hit right below Clayton, hitting whatever it was he was riding. Startled, the mount momentarily lost its invisibility, revealing itself to be a large chameleon like heartless.

Shikamaru started giving out instructions. "Naruto, Kiba. Distract that thing." Both boys did as they were told; Naruto creating clones to jump and punch the heartless and Kiba and Akamaru running in and out of each other, zig zagging to confuse it. "Tarzan. Run at it from the side and attack it with your spear. Try to hit the soft spots." The jungle warrior rushed at the monster and started stabbing it, trying to find a weak spot. "Sora. I want you and Naruto to reach up and attack Clayton with your blades." The real Naruto, who had been holding back, awaiting further instructions, reached behind his back and grabbed his nodachi, creating another clone and leaping off its back. Sora clutched his keyblade and ran at the heartless, jumping off the bumps on his shoulders and legs. Both the weapon users yelled their own battle cry and they started slicing at Clayton, who shot at them in turn.

The heartless swiped its claws at the little annoying creatures running around him. It was getting very annoyed. Finally it reared up, knocking Naruto, Sora, and Clayton off its back and slamming down into the ground. Some of the clones dispersed and Kiba and Akamaru were thrown back a little. Tarzan jumped at the last moment and stuck his spear up just as the heartless came back down.

Naruto and Sora backed off to the rest of the group. Clayton stumbled back, holding his side. He glowered and brought his gun up again, but suddenly heard a stopping behind him. Looking up in horror, he realized that the big heartless was falling… right on top of him. "Nooo!" he cried out before being crushed.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and put away their weapons. "Tarzan!" someone called out. The group turned to see Jane running to them followed closely by her father. "You're okay!" She rushed up and gave him a hug.

"Is it safe?" Terk asked as she crawled out from her hiding place.

"Yes," Tarzan said, still holding Jane.

At hearing his words, the rest of the gorillas cautiously came out and surrounded their heroes, but made room when Kerchak, followed by Kala, walked up to Tarzan.

"Will you let them go now?" Tarzan asked him.

Kerchak didn't answer by grabbed Sora by his jacket and flung him up onto a ledge covered in vines. The keyblade bearer groaned in pain from landing face first in the dirt. "Wahoohoohoo!!!" someone yelled and suddenly Sora felt two weights fall right on top of him.

"Gawrsh, Sora. Are you okay?" Goofy asked him, the boy just wheezed.

Naruto, Kiba, and Shikamaru leapt up into the ledge, not needing any help getting there. "He looks fine to me," the lazy shinobi said dismissively. Kiba and Naruto stared at Sora, who seemed to be twitching a little.

Tarzan scaled up the vines with Jane and her father and let them go before looking down at his family.

"You did well, Tarzan," Kerchak said before walking off. Kala smiled warmly at her son before following her mate.

"Thank you… Father," Tarzan said quietly. The big silverback didn't stop, but Tarzan could feel the smile on his face as he walked away.

Climbing up to the top, the ape-man found his new friends in a big pile. He shook his head, took Jane by the hand and led her to the other edge. In the distance, a large waterfall roared and the sound of the jungle echoed it. Sora got up and walked over to the two and took in the breath-taking scene. The rest of the entourage followed him over. "Tarzan home," the jungle warrior told them. No spoke, for fear of shattering the tranquility.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Naruto asked when Tarzan started to walk away. The jungle warrior turned to him and grunted in gorilla, the same word from the tree house, before walking into a cave.

"Come on," Sora said, making a motion with his hand, "Let's follow him."

* * *

Water dripped from the roof of the cave. The group splashed through the little puddles of water as they followed Tarzan through the different caverns.

Finally, he led everyone into a crevice. Sora looked around in amazement as he saw blue glowing butterflies lining the walls. The jungle warrior grunted in gorilla again.

"This is your home?" Kiba asked.

Sora looked around, searching for his lost friends. Finding nothing, he turned to his ape friend. "But that means…" Tarzan held up his hand and brought it to his ear, listening to something.

"Huh?" Goofy asked. Everyone was quiet. In the silence, a roaring sound could be heard.

"The waterfalls," Jane realized.

"Oh my!," Porter said, catching on. "They're echoing all the way here."

Tarzan spoke the word in gorilla again, but this time, he continued in English. "Friends there. See friends.

Jane thought for a moment and suddenly her face brightened. "Now I get it!" She repeated the gorilla word and translated. "It means heart."

Shikamaru smiled and shook his head. "Friends in our heart."

"Heart," Tarzan repeated, putting it to memory.

"Oh…" Sora said, looking at the ground. "That's what it meant."

The jungle warrior looked at the boy and smiled. "Friends," he said, motioning at everyone in the cave. Sora looked around and saw Donald and Goofy, both smiling their own goofy smile at him; Naruto, grinning widely and rubbing his nose; Shikamaru, yawning and muttering about how troublesome it was when you don't understand something; Kiba and Akamaru, showing feral smiles, but in a warm and friendly way; Professor Porter with Jane leaning on his shoulder. "Friends," Tarzan repeated. "Same heart." He looked down and continued. "Clayton lose heart." Sora nodded in understanding. "No heart, no see friends. No heart, no friends."

Naruto looked at the ground and was quiet for a very long time. What Tarzan had said was a warning. The friends you had needed to be cherished. If he wanted to find his teammates, not to mention anyone else from Konoha out there, he needed to keep trying. The shinobi grinned and proclaimed loudly, "I'll never give up, dattebayo! That's my ninja way and I _will_ follow it! Believe it!"

Sora smiled at his loud friend and turned to Donald. Immediately his smile turned into a sheepish frown. "Sorry about what I said," he told the magician, rubbing the back of his head.

Donald looked down and then back up. "I'm sorry, too," he finally said.

Goofy chuckled and grabbed both of them into a hug. "Yeah!" he exclaimed. "All for one, huh?"

"Hey!" Naruto yelled. "I want in on the hug! Kage Bunshin no jutsu!" Three more Narutos appeared and they grabbed the remaining people and brought them into the hug shared by Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

"Let go of me, idiot!" Kiba yelled. Akamaru barked in amusement.

"Make me, Dog breath!!" Naruto yelled back.

"Can't you think of any other name to insult me with?"

"What if I can't, Dog breath? Huh? Are you gonna bite me?"

"Don't tempt me," Kiba growled.

Naruto put his hands to his face and started to moan and feign fear. "Oooh!! I'm so scared! OW!! Why'd ya bite me?"

"Because you wouldn't shut up."

Everyone laughed as the two continued to bicker, except Shikamaru who looked to sky and muttered out, "What a drag."

Sora chuckled as he watched their antics, but suddenly his mind was brought to other things. The keyblade had started to tug again, much like it had in Wonderland. He stared at it for a moment before looking up at the colony of butterflies. Some of them started to fly around the room until they reveal, right in the middle of them all, the keyhole to the Deep Jungle. Sora held up the keyblade and a beam of light shot out at the keyhole. A clicking sound was heard and the hole disappeared.

"Looks like we found another one," the keyblade master said.

Suddenly, something fell from where the hole had been. "A gummi!" Donald said, excitedly.

Goofy looked at it and frowned. "But it's sure not the king's," he replied sadly.

The two comrades were downcast when they realized they were not any closer to finding their friend.

"Hey, you two," Naruto said, putting a hand on both of their shoulders. "We'll find the king, Riku and Kairi, and Sasuke and Sakura, dattebayo!" When the two didn't cheer up, Naruto pointed at his headband. "I swear on the symbol of the Leaf Village that I will not stop until I find all of our precious people! And you better believe it!"

Sora walked over. "He's right. As long as we stick together, there's nothing we won't accomplish!"

"Yah know something," Goofy said, the beginnings of a smile showing on his face. "I think yer right! What do ya say, Donald?"

The magician sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "Well someone's gotta keep you guys in line." The four laughed and all sadness was forgotten.

Tarzan walked up to Sora. "Sora, Tarzan, friends," he said.

Sora nodded. "Friends," he repeated.

* * *

The friends would never know it, but they were being watched once again by the strange group of shadowy people.

"What drew the heartless to that world?" one of the asked.

"The hunter lured them there," Maleficent said from her throne. "It was his lust for power that was the bait. And perhaps the two strangers there as well."

"At least _they_ were smart enough not to mess with the heartless," one of them said, scornfully.

"They seemed to know the little blonde brat," another contributed. "Do you know them, Orochimaru?"

The snake Sannin simply smirked. "Indeed I do," he replied. "And even if the hunter did escape the Heartless's grasp, Itachi and Kisame will not allow him to live. Their group, Akatsuki, does not approve of failure."

One of the shadows chuckled. "I'll bet he'll wish he'd been eaten up by the heartless!"

"Such is the fate of a weak-hearted fool," the first shadow said. "But the boy found another keyhole!"

"Fear not," Maleficent told them. "He still remains blissfully unaware of other plan."

"Yes," a feminine voice chortled. "The princesses."

Maleficent nodded. "If we continue to find them, then our goal will be well within reach."

* * *

Clayton pulled himself from out from underneath the heartless. He was tired and weak, but he was free. He laughed to himself. "They couldn't defeat me! Ha ha! I'm too tough to beat!"

"Are you so sure of that," a chilling voice replied. Clayton looked up into the face of Kisame. Looking over, he saw Itachi glaring at him.

"You failed to capture Uzumaki Naruto," the young informed him.

The hunter started groveling at the ground. "I'm sorry! I'll do better next time! I swear!"

"There will be no next time," Itachi said coldly. "Our target has already left this world and is flying through space."

"World?" Clayton asked, completely confused.

The Uchiha looked at him in disgust. "Kisame."

"Yes?" the shark man said, anticipating how this was going to end.

"Have as much fun as you want," he finished before walking off.

Kisame turned back to Clayton with a grin showing all of his pointed teeth. "I believe I will. Please don't die to quickly."

Clayton's cries could be heard throughout the jungle.

* * *

The gummi block glinted in the light as Goofy held it up. "The gummi that came out of that keyhole…" Shikamaru started, "it's not like the others. Do you know what it's used for?"

"I dunno," the knight said.

"Maybe Leon'll know," Sora said.

"Who's Leon?" Kiba whispered to Naruto.

"He's a total jerk that judges other people and thinks his word is law," the blonde replied.

Donald thought about it. "Hmmm… he might. Back to Traverse Town, then?" And without further ado, started to fly the ship towards the small town where they had met.

Sora looked at the duck magician and to the controls before back to the magician. "I wanna pilot!" he whined.

"No," Donald said flatly. There was no way _he _was flying again. Sora started to push the duck out of his chair in attempt to gain control. "Hey! Stop it!" he quacked.

The brunette crossed his arms and pouted saying, "Oh come on! I'm the Keyblade master!"

Donald glared daggers at him. "I don't care _who_ you are! No!" Sora started push again and tried to grab a joystick.

Shikamaru rubbed his temples. "Here we go again. How troublesome."

* * *

Yes! It's done!!! Finished!!! I am so happy!! Now I gotta start on the next chappie. maybe tomorrow. I'm gonna to Traverse Town and drop off Shikamaru and Kiba then head over to the Colosium. Just a heads up.

Sakura is finally able to explore the mansion, but will the arrival of Sasuke ruin her fun? And just who is this Riku guy? As for Ansem... let's just say he's upset. meanwhile, Naruto and the gang are heading back to Traverse Town to have a talk with Leon. What will happen when Naruto and him meet up? and what's this about a visitor? _NEXT TIME: Town Trouble!_


	13. Town Trouble!

I am **_sooooo_** sorry. I'm sure most of you thought I was giving up on this. Well I haven't. Although it's been almost a year, I _have_ been working on this, off and on. I don't plan on abandoning this story, because it's fun for me to write.

Anyways, here it is, the long awaited Chapter 11.

**DISCLAIMER:** I don't own Naruto or Kingdom Hearts. I'm not THAT creative.

**A Ninja and a Keybearer**

_Chapter 11: Deceptions and Mysteries  
_

Naruto stared out the window at the stars that they were passing by. To the rest of the group he looked utterly bored, but in reality, he was having a silent breakdown. He was absolutely sure that as soon as Leon saw him, he'd make sure he was kept under lock and key. Even Konoha's most surprising ninja couldn't escape the surveillance of a gun-blade wielder, a ninja (albeit, not as good as the ones from the Shinobi Nations, but a ninja none the less), and a nice lady who would keep an eye on him to make sure he didn't get in trouble, for long.

Naruto closed his eyes and opened them to find himself standing in front of the cage containing the Nine-Tailed Fox.

"Kyuubi, what am I gonna do?" he asked. The fox growled and cracked open an eye to look the disturbance. He sighed and sat to glare at Naruto. However, Kyuubi knew that for the blonde to come to him for advice meant that he was overly distraught. Maybe he could get something out of this…

**"Stay out of his way,"** the nine-tailed bijuu replied grumpily. **"He can't capture you if you're not around."**

"What am I gonna tell the others when I just disappear?"Naruto was truly desperate. There was a possibility he wouldn't be able to keep his promise to his friends and that went against everything he was for. What would everyone think of him? If he didn't keep his word… that would make him just like what everyone said he was… a monster.

Kyuubi grinned.** "Just give them some lame excuse. You're good at improvising. Or…" **Naruto straightened up at this. If the fox was up to something, he would have to be careful. **"You could just leave everything to me. I'd take really good care of your body."** _**'Not that you'll be needing it afterwards,' **_he thought to himself.

The blonde Shinobi cocked an eyebrow. "What are you proposing?" he asked warily. "I'm not stupid enough to do anything drastic and you know it."

The fox did what looked like a shrug. **"Just take half of the seal off. That's all I'm asking."** Naruto was fixing to yell and tell him that he was an idiot to think that he'd free the fox, but Kyuubi beat him to it. **"I can't break out of it, and it's enough to let you still be in control of your body." **_**'However, it's just enough so that I can rip the rest of it off.'**_ Naruto was starting to play into his claws. The little idiot just needed to grab onto the bait and he'd be just like a fish on a hook.

"What do you get out of this?"

Kyuubi smirked. Almost there. **"I simply get the chance to play around. You know how bored I get in here!"** Naruto still looked suspicious, so he quickly added, **"Don't you want to keep you promise? It is your nindo, remember?"**

Naruto's face hardened at that. He'd promised Sakura he'd save her. He'd promised Sora to help find his friends. He'd promised himself to be Hokage. It was as if Kyuubi was reading his mind. How could _he_ trust himself if he couldn't keep his word? "You have to promise not to hurt anyone. No destroying towns, no killing, nothing."

**"Of course,"** Kyuubi said smoothly. **"I wouldn't dream of it."**

Naruto reached up to peal the seal off the gate of the cage. This felt so wrong… "It's only half of the seal. No damage done!" he tried to convince himself.

"_NARUTO!"_ someone yelled as soon as the blonde touched the paper seal. _"WHAT'S GOING ON!? WAKE UP!!!" _

Naruto was snapped out of his trance by someone shaking him by the shoulders and found himself staring straight into Sora's face. Looking behind the Keybearer, he saw everyone staring at him with scared and confused faces.

"What happened?" he asked.

"You tell us!" Kiba said, his voice rising almost to a yell. "One moment it was fine and the next we felt this scary chakra in the cabin!"

"It was coming from you," Shikamaru said, for once, wide awake. "And you had just passed out."

Goofy covered his mouth in worry. "When we went to wake you up, you looked so scary."

Sora nodded and explained for Goofy. "Your whisker marks were very thick and your canines were sticking out of your mouth." Naruto automatically reached up and touched his birthmarks. _'Was that the Kyuubi?' _Sora thought to himself.

Naruto remained quiet, listening to the nine tailed fox curse the Keybearer in the back of his mind. If simply touching the seal made him look feral like that, then what could have happened if he had taken it off, if only just a little? The blonde suddenly felt a sinking feeling in his stomach.

"What happened?" Donald demanded, crossing his arms and tapping his foot.

Naruto didn't want to tell them. He couldn't. "I… don't know," he lied quietly. Before anyone could ask any more questions, Naruto stiffly walked to the back room of the cabin and closed the door behind him.

Sora looked at his friends and sighed. He needed to talk to the kid. Opening the door, Sora found Naruto curled up on the couch with his back facing him and shaking softly. The keybearer closed the door behind him and walked over. "What's up?" he asked casually, trying to lift the mood.

The shinobi mumbled something incoherent. "What was that?" the keybearer pressed.

"I thought I locked the door," came the half hearted reply.

Sora laughed. "That's what's so great about being a Keyblade Master. I can unlock _anything_!" When Naruto didn't move, Sora frowned. "Was that the Kyuubi?" he asked quietly, in case anyone was listening at the door.

Naruto's head moved in what looked like a nod. He rolled over to get a better look at Sora. "I… I almost did something horrible." Sora remained quiet and waited for the blonde. "The stupid fox almost got me to tear off the seal. I wasn't going to do it all the way, only half! But he probably would have tried to take complete control. I wouldn't put it past him."

Sora was shocked. "Why would you even consider that!?" he exclaimed.

Naruto looked away guiltily. "Because I have to keep my promises. Leon's gonna make sure I don't go anywhere as soon as he sees me and you know it! I-I don't know what to do."

Sora was quiet for a long time. He remembered the promise he'd made before they'd left Traverse Town. He'd help Naruto. "Maybe I can talk to Leon," he suggested. "But, just in case, I think you should be on guard." It was quiet for quite a few minutes before Sora leapt up and exclaimed, "I got it!"

Startled, Naruto quickly sat up straight. "Got what?" he asked dumbly.

"A plan."

* * *

Sora walked through the gates of Traverse Town followed by his friends. Akamaru barked. Kiba translated for the group. "So where do we go now?"

"Hey look! It's Yuffie!" Naruto yelled, and sure enough, there she was standing by the mailbox with her back facing the group.

"Yuffie!!" Sora cried out. The kunoichi turned around and smiled when she saw who had called her name out.

"Sora! Goofy! Donald! Hey guys!! Oh there you are Naruto! Leon suspected that you snuck on board. Who are they?"

Naruto grinned. "These are some of my friends. Shikamaru, Kiba, and the dog is Akamaru. They're shinobi just like me!"

"We actually come from the same village," Kiba informed her. The dog boy looked at Naruto with a mischievous glint in his eye. "And actually, he shouldn't be a shinobi in the first place. He failed the Genin test."

Naruto bristled and turned on the Inuzuka. "You wanna say that again?!"

Kiba smirked. "You. Failed. The. Genin. Test," he repeated, emphasizing each word.

"I DIDN'T FAIL!!! I MADE A HUNDRED _KAGE_ BUNSHINS FOR YOUR INFORMATION!!!!! DANGIT!! LET GO OF ME SORA!!!! I'M GONNA _KILL_ HIM DATTEBAYO!!!!!!"

Goofy, totally oblivious to what was going on, started chatting with Yuffie. "So do ya know where we could find Leon? Ahyuck! We gotta tell 'im about what we found."

Yuffie, a bit flustered from the scene, had to take a moment to reply. "Uh… um… Oh! I... think he's in the underground cave."

"OW!! QUIT BITING ME, NARUTO!!! I'M _NOT_ GONNA LET YOU GO!!!"

Goofy smiled. "Hey, uh, where's the underground cave?"

"It's… um… in the back alley. Are you gonna do anything about that?"

"Do 'bout what?"

"NARUTO!! IF YOU DON'T CALM DOWN I'M GONNA FREEZE YOU SO BAD YOUR _GRANDCHILDREN_ WILL HAVE FROSTBITE!!"

"SHUT UP, DONALD!!!"

"Geeze, this is so troublesome."

Yuffie pointed. "That."

Goofy turned around to look and turned back to Yuffie. "Oh they're just playin'."

* * *

Sasuke looked up at the tall gate. "It's open," he said, stating the obvious. "She's here."

Riku smiled. "So just who is this Sakura girl anyways?" Maybe he could rough up the younger boy. Sasuke also seemed so… calm. "Do you _like_ her?"

Sasuke, suddenly flustered, quickly replied, "No. She's just my teammate and she's a constant bother and an annoying fan girl."

"Uh huh. Suuure," Riku said. He chuckled, finished with his moment of entertainment. "C'mon, let's go find the girls."

Unsurprisingly, the great oaken doors to the mansion were unlocked, but once they stepped foot inside, the place was completely empty. "Where is everyone? Normally you'd see a bunch of servants around."

Sasuke smirked. "Then let's go find them." The next moment, Sasuke brought down his elbow on the table in front of them, smashing it in half.

Riku stared at it bug eyed. "Watcha do that for?!"

The Uchiha smirked again, satisfied for the moment. "Might as well get some training in. Besides, it's not like anyone will be living here long enough to complain. And as a bonus, it will keep me from getting bored."

As the genin destroyed a chair, Riku shuddered and couldn't help but wonder if all shinobi were this blood thirsty.

* * *

Sakura walked down the halls followed by her friends. The eerie sound of silence echoed around them, making each too afraid to utter a noise. "What is this place?" Hayner asked as quietly as he could, voicing the thought on everyone's mind.

"I don't know," the pink haired kunoichi whispered back. She didn't remember this area of the mansion, but she couldn't shake off the feeling that she'd been here before. She was right. After a couple of minutes of walking down the hallway, Sakura instantly recognized the different holding cells. She had been behind these bars not too long ago after all, only now she knew where they were.

"Hey look there's someone here," Pence whispered. The boy pointed at a young girl lying in one of the cells.

"She isn't moving," Hayner said, pointing out the obvious.

Olette's hands flew to her mouth in worry. "Is she okay?"

"Her name's Kairi," a dark voice call out, making the four friends jump. "And she's coming with_ me_." Only a dark silhouette could be seen at the far end of the hallway.

"Who are you?" Sakura growled. "What are you doing in the mansion? Get out!"

"Relax, Sakura." The kunoichi froze at the sound of a new voice. "He's with me." A new silhouette appeared beside the first one.

"Sa-Sasuke?"

"Sakura! What is it?" Hayner yelled, completely confused. Suddenly a swift gust of air blew by the group and the first figure was left alone in the front of the hallway.

Sasuke appeared behind his teammate. "Sakura," he said in her ear, "what are you doing here?" Too shocked for words, the female genin simply turned and stared at him in shock.

"Sakura!" A new voice boomed. Ansem turned into the hallway and walked swiftly by the first silhouette, not even glancing at him, and continued until he was standing directly in front of the girl. "What are you doing?"

Momentarily forgetting her shock, Sakura stood straighter in defiance to her caretaker. "I'm trying to find out what you're hiding from me."

"I told you not to bring anyone here," the professor said in a dangerous tone. Ansem turned his attention to Sasuke. "And you. Why are you here?"

Sasuke simply glowered at him. "Weren't you the one that said 'travel the worlds'?"

The old man chuckled, although there was no merriment in it. "But I also told you not to be tempted by the darkness and what it promises, didn't I? And look at yourself now."

"Some advice is not meant to be taken," the Uchiha countered.

_-Flashback-_

Sasuke slung his pack over his shoulder walked out of the Uchiha Compound, oblivious to the pouring rain. Maybe he could get Sakura and Naruto to come with him. As long as they stayed out of his way and let him train alone, they might be able take on Orochimaru together, if it came to that. Unlike last time, they were all a lot stronger.

"Where are you going, Uchiha Sasuke?"

Sasuke whipped around at a sound of a deep voice. He scowled into the shadows in the corners of the Compound wall. "Who's there?" he growled.

A deep laugh emitted from the darkness, as if the boy had said something quite funny, and a cloaked figure walked out. A hood was pulled far over his head to keep the rain out of his face, but also to hide his identity as well. "I am simply an old philosopher trying to help the worlds," he said.

"How do you know my name?" Sasuke lowered a hand near the kunai holster on his thigh and glared suspiciously at the figure.

The cloaked man ignored his question. "You wouldn't happen to be following Riku's advice and submitting yourself to the darkness would you?" Another chuckle came; however, this one had no mirth to it. "That would be very foolish indeed."

"What are you doing here?" Sasuke asked. "What village are you from?"

The man lifted his hood slightly so the Uchiha could catch a glimpse of an older looking man with shoulder length blonde hair and beard. "I do not come from any village. Nor do I come from this world. I have actually come to make a proposal." Sasuke didn't reply, but made no move to leave either. "I am looking for someone who is willing to help me. As I understand, someone gave you a visit earlier. Yes, I know all about it," the man said when the genin's face showed a hint of surprise. "I suggest you go on with his plan. Go see the worlds and you may gain some knowledge as well. However, I need a spy. For years, Maleficent has been commanding the Heartless. For my own reasons, I wish to detain her and obliterate her control, however, I have never been able to get close enough to do so."

"So you want me to go to Hollow Bastion to see if I can find any weaknesses for you so you may continue with your plan," Sasuke said simply.

The man chuckled yet again. "You are a quick one."

"So they tell me." Sasuke smirked. "And what's in it for me?"

"As I said before, you will have a chance to see different worlds and gain experience. Perhaps even enough strength to defeat that brother of yours. Yes I know about him as well. What do you say?"

Sasuke was quiet for a moment. "Alright."

As Sasuke started walk off, the man stopped him once again. Calling after him, he said "A word of warning. Do not fall into the darkness. It is a powerful force capable of taking over your heart completely. It will promise you things that sound very pleasing, but believe me when I say it is not worth it. Do not let it capture you in its icy claws."

Sasuke held up a hand to say that he had heard the warning and continued on without a word.

_-End Flashback-_

"Let's just say, this seemed more promising," Sasuke said. Riku walked up then to Kairi's cell. His keyblade suddenly appeared in his hand, spooking the Twilight Town children, and he sliced through the bars like they were butter.

"I'll be taking her," he said in a smug voice, picking her up and holding her over his shoulder.

Ansem's face suddenly turned red in anger. "You can't do this! I need her to motivate-"

The old philosopher was cut short when Riku punched him in the stomach. "I just did," he said.

Sakura stared aghast as Ansem doubled over. Rude and smart-alecky he may be, he didn't deserve to be brought so low. She glared at Riku's retreating back and clenched her fist. "Hey!" she yelled at him. The silver haired boy half turned to look at her.

"Are you going to yell at me, too?" he asked in a bored tone. Sakura didn't say a word. She didn't have to. Her fist did all the talking as she sent it sailing for Riku's cheek. The boy was sent flying backwards by the blow; however, Sakura caught Kairi before she fell to ground.

Racing back to her group of friends, she handed the sleeping girl to Hayner. "Take her and Ansem somewhere safe," she instructed them. "I'll try to catch up." Pence nodded and between him and Olette, they dragged Ansem along with them as they ran down the hall and out of the mansion.

Riku stood up and glared at the pink haired girl. She glared back. The island boy went to raise his hand to summon his keyblade when Sasuke stopped him.

"Sasuke," Sakura just about yelled, "get this jerk out of here!" The Uchiha smiled.

"I need your help," he said simply.

* * *

"So, you found the keyhole." As Yuffie had predicted, the gang had found Leon in the underground cave training with his gunblade. As soon as they saw him, Sora had gone into a whole narrative about what had happened on Wonderland and the Deep Jungle, with some minor interruptions from Donald. Goofy had introduced Kiba and Shikamaru. What no really seemed to notice during all of this was Naruto slowly shifting to the back of the group. He had no intention of reminding Leon that he was to stay put.

"Yeah, the Keyblade locked it automatically," Sora said with a grin.

"Good."

"So what exactly are these keyholes anyways?" Kiba asked, not able to hold the question in any longer.

Leon nodded to him and explained. "You wouldn't know of course. Every world among the stars has a keyhole. And each leads to the heart of that world." Leon paused for a moment, thinking. "There must be one in this town as well."

"What do you mean?" Donald asked.

"It was in Ansem's report," came a new voice. Everyone turned to see Aerith walking up to the group with a tray of beverages, which all of the boys quickly indulged themselves on. "Ansem was our leader back at our old world," she explained to the new comers. "He studied the heartless for a long time."

Leon nodded again. "The heartless enter through the Keyhole and do something to the world's core."

"What happens to the core," Shikamaru asked in a bored tone.

Leon stared at him for a moment, deciding if he really wanted to know or not. "In the end it disappears."

There was a collective gasp and Naruto couldn't help shout. "What!"

Leon looked at him, mentally noting that he needed to get a hold of the blonde as soon as possible. "That's why your key is so important," he said, addressing Sora.

Aerith smiled sweetly at him, but a deep sadness glimmered in her eyes. "Please lock the keyholes. You're the only one who can."

Sora frowned. This was too much for him. The fate of the world had been placed in his hands. Literally. "I don't know…"

"I'd go man!" Kiba said, grinning his feral smile. "Even if only to see the worlds. This is all so new!"

"Yeah!" exclaimed Donald.

Goofy grinned at him. "We gotta find your friends and King Mickey."

A smile slowly spread across Sora's face until he finally spoke. "I guess you're right. Okay! Let's do it!"

Shikamaru yawned. "So what are we gonna do while you all run off?" The lazy boy stretched and leaned against the cave wall. "It's not like there's enough room for all of us if you keep on finding people."

"He's right," Donald said. "You'll probably have to stay here for a bit."

"No way!! If Naruto gets to go, then I wanna go!" Kiba shouted.

Leon's eyes flickered towards the blonde shinobi. "He's not going with them."

"Really? Why not?"

The man held his gaze with the boy. "He knows why. If he gets captured, he'll be more a danger to his comrades than his enemies."

Naruto didn't say a word. He just stood there looking down at the ground. His hands slowly clenched into fists and his jaw tensed up. He hated this.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and calculated his fellow genin's reaction before closing his eyes, supposedly falling asleep. Naruto was a puzzle that he couldn't help but keep wondering about.

"Fine," Naruto said through tightly clenched teeth. "There's no point in me going anyways."

Goofy frowned. "But what about yer friends Sasuk-" the knight was cut off by Sora covering his mouth.

"Shhhh. It will work out," the keybearer whispered in his ear.

The blonde stared down at the ground, complete anger plastered to his face. It took everything he had not to let the Kyuubi's power out. Leon closed his eyes in frustration. He had better things to do than look after an angry kid.

Aerith sensed the sudden tension in the air and decided to break it. "Come on," she said to the Konoha genin, "I'll show you where you can stay while you're here."

* * *

As, Sora, Donald, and Goofy walked into the First District, the magician couldn't help but voice his thoughts. "Do you really think that Cid will know what this is?"

Sora looked back at the duck who held the gummi block they had found in the Deep Jungle between his fingers. The Keyblade bearer shrugged his shoulders. "That's what Leon said."

As the group walked, the brunette teenager fiddled with the strange green stone that Leon had given to him. _"I've been carrying it for luck. I want you to have it now."_ Sora frowned_. "This stone holds some mysterious power."_ However, Leon had no idea how to use it. The keybearer shrugged. He had more important things to think about at the moment anyways. Hopefully Naruto and his plan was working.

"Hey guys!!" a loud voice yelled out. Donald quacked in surprise when a certain blonde ninja appeared in front of the group.

Goofy scratched his head. "Weren't you with Aerith and the rest of your friends?"

Naruto looked confused for a moment. "I was?" Sora cleared his throat. "Oh yeah! Um… Aerith said I could go with you."  
Donald didn't look convinced. "Leon said you couldn't come," he said suspiciously, tapping his foot all the while.

Naruto's cerulean orbs showed the slight worry that his face did not. "Well they said I could stay with you guys until you leave." He smiled his trademark grin, trying to be convincing.

"Alright." Sora smiled. "We were just gonna see Cid, remember?" Naruto nodded eagerly.

They found the old spacer in his accessory shop. "Well hey there," he said smiling when walked in. "What's up wit' you?"

"We found a gummi block in the Deep Jungle!" Sora exclaimed.

"Well now, so you did. Let me see that thing?" Cid took the strange little block from Goofy's outstretched hand and look closely at it, chewing his toothpick in thought.

"Do you know what it does?" Naruto asked.

Cid's eyes widened in shock. Turning sharply on the boys, he exclaimed, "You're kidding me! You're flyin' a gummi ship and don't know nothin' about navigation gummis? Bunch of pinheads."

"Hey!" Naruto yelled.

Cid ignored him. "Interspace ain't no playground!"

Donald's face reddened drastically and steam practically came out of his ears. Naruto similarly was angry. "There's a lot we don't know! So what!" the blonde shinobi yelled.

Donald continued his rave. "We're not stupid! We have to use the gummi ship to go to other worlds! We don't have a choice!!"

"Whoa, easy!" the shopkeeper said, holding up his hands in what he hoped was a peaceful gesture. "I didn't know. No hard feelings, all right?"

"Do you know how to use it?" Goofy asked.

Cid snickered. "Use it? I know how to install it! These little navigation gummis basically help you reach out farther than you would with a normally gummi ship."

"Could you install it for us?" Sora requested.

"Hmm. I guess I could. After I deliver a package."

"What do you need delivered? Maybe we can do it for you!" Sora suggested. If it meant getting into space faster, he'd help with anything.

"It's just his book," Cid answered, holding up a square package. "It's really old. When the guy brought it in, it was so beat up, it was practically falling apart. Too beat up to fix it completely, but I did a pretty good if I do say so myself." The older man rubbed his fingernails on his shirt in a self-accomplished way.

"What a bragger," Naruto whispered to Donald, who, for once, absolutely agreed with him.

"Anyways, Could you deliver this book for me?"

Sora smiled. "Sure."

And with that, the four friends set off with a map and the package to deliver while Cid started on his work on their gummi ship.

* * *

Alright. Now I have time for an ending description!

Upon meeting an old wizard, learning to rein their skills, and finding Traverse Town's keyhole, Sora and the gang are just about ready for another adventure. However, what is Sora fool proof plan? How will Naruto stow away _again_? And what does Sasuke have to say to Sakura? It will all be revealed_NEXT TIME:__Plans, Schemes, and Lessons_


	14. The Third Author's Note

Okay, I have begun another story (naughty, naughty me). But I'm not giving up on this I promise!! This new story is actually a collaboration with Fanfics21 and will be a prequel to A Ninja and Keybearer. I promise that I will finish Chapter 12 though before I get too involved with it.

This new story takes place during Birth By Sleep and will feature Naruto the same way that he is in Kingdom Hearts- simply added in. Wait! I know what you're wondering. Wouldn't he be MUCH older if he is as old as Ven and them then? In normal terms? Yes. But how he is a thirteen year old kid in KH 1... I'll let you guess. Don't worry. It's in the prologue.

So I will finish this. I promise. I will even work a little bit on it while I'm working on this new story, just not as much. I just need a break is all, refresh my thought process. School is almost out so I can turn my brain to mush again and get all that math, history, english, and science out and make room for fun stuff.

In the meantime, if you have any ideas about what you want to see in the future, just let me know and I will write it down in my big book of ideas and see if I can fit it in. :)


	15. Plans, Schemes, and Lessons

It's FINALLY done. :D I had so much writer's block with this one. D: It was crazy. And it's 11 pages long to boot! But now I can relax. :) Birth of a Maelstrom will be on hold until this story is over.

**A Ninja and A Keybearer**

_Chapter 12: __Plans, Schemes and Lessons_

Sora and the group had followed Cid's crude map to the Third District. Once there, however, the map was unsure as to where they should deliver the book. Sora turned the map upside down, sideways, and backwards, but still, the crayon-on-napkin drawing didn't make sense.

"Stupid, idiot, gummi-geek," Naruto grumbled under his breath.

"So what do we do now?" Donald asked.

Sora scratched his head in thought. What _could_ they do? "Maybe if we split up and look for some sorta hint…" And so the group split up in search of any kind of clue to their destination. Naruto jumped onto the top of the roofs to get a higher look while Donald and Sora looked in opposite directions. Goofy however stared at a neon sign. On it was a map similar to the one that Cid had drawn for them, but it actually showed the paths between the three districts, as well as an emblem of fire, leading out of the third district.

"Hey guys?" Goofy asked. "I think I found a hint."

It didn't take long to find the door with a flame emblem, the same as on the sign, along one of the walls. I took a lot of discussing- as well as Naruto beating his fists against the door- before the group realized that magic was the key. Sora took aim with his keyblade and yelled, "FIRE!" At first nothing happened, but then the door began to creak and slowly open into a dark chamber.

In the middle of the chamber was an island with a worn down, old house on it. The rest of the room was filled with water excluding the stepping stones leading to the island's shore.

The inside of the house was in not much better condition than the outside, but it reminded Sora of something. Just as soon as the thought entered his head, a voice that he'd know anywhere came from the dark corner.

"There's something about this musty old place." Sora whipped around to see Kairi walking up behind him. His eyes widened enormously. Kairi? Here? How! Too shocked for words, Sora could only stare as Kairi walked past him, continuing her thought. "It reminds me of the Secret Place back home, where we used to scribble on the walls." She turned around and smiled at her dearest friend then. "Remember?"

"Kairi?" Sora asked in awe. Slowly, his hand went up to his heart.

"Sora? What are you doing?" Goofy's question broke the illusion surrounding Sora. The Keyblade Master looked at him and then looked back, but, much to his dismay, Kairi was gone.

Naruto, who had been playing with a dust bunny in the corner, looked up at the group. "Now what?" he asked, his eyes squinted in confusion. "There's no one here. What're we gonna do with the book?"

At that moment a loud crash sounded outside. "Get ready!" Sora shouted. "It might be the heartless."

The group suddenly lost there their fighting spirit as an old man walked in coughing from the dust outside. He was dressed rather unusually. A large, light blue tunic covered his obliviously scrawny body. On top of his head he wore a high pointed cap made of the same material as the tunic. The hat covered his snow white hair, but while his hair was short, his beard reached down to his ankles. In one hand he held a carpet bag and the other he held his round spectacles, trying to get all the dust off of them. Everything about him looked the part of a wizard.

"Who is this guy?" Donald whispered.

"Seems no one's bothered with keeping my house clean while I was away," he seemed to mutter to himself. "Can't make a clean landing with all of this dust blocking my sight." At that moment, the old man noticed the group. "Well, well. You've arrived sooner than I expected. Either that or the whole problem with Arthur being king took more time than I thought."

"Wha… you knew we were coming?" Sora asked in amazement.

The man nodded. "Of course." Presently, he set down his suitcase and tried to get all of the kinks out of his back.

Naruto looked at him in amazement. "Are you… a Heartless?"

Donald hit him on the head with his mage staff. "Does he look like one, idiot?"

The shinobi immediately jumped up and took a breath to begin yelling at the duck, but the old man interrupted him with a start of surprise. "Oh, my! No. My name is Merlin. As you can see, I am a sorcerer. I spend much of my time traveling. In fact, I just got back from helping a young pupil of mine. King Arthur of the Round Table, you know." As he looked around, his eyes crinkled with pleasure. "It's good to be home. Even though it looks dark and danky," he once again muttered to himself. "Anyways, your king has requested my help."

Donald and Goofy looked at each other in excitement before turning back to the wizard. "King Mickey?"

Merlin smiled and nodded. "Yes indeed, Donald, Goofy, and… uh…" The old wizard stopped in mid-nod. "I don't believe his Majesty gave me both of your names. Actually, he only mentioned that there was just one other person I needed to teach."

"I'm Sora, and this is Naruto. I'm helping him with his own mission," the Keyblade Master pointed with his introduction.

Merlin's eyes twinkled as he looked at Sora's hand, which still held his keyblade from earlier. "Ah. So you have found the key."

Sora looked at his weapon with a hard stare. "So the king wants you to teach me magic?" he asked.

The old sorcerer nodded. "Indeed. You will find that you will need these skills in able to accomplish your goals. Not everything depends on brute strength. Sometimes the answer to a question can rely in thinking logically, after all, that's what makes the world go round. Oh bother. Let me clean up this mess real quick." Merlin raised his arms and started to wave them around speaking deeply, "Higitis figitus bigitus boom! Presto de atolium!" In an instant, the house was completely clean and well furnished. Merlin sighed as he lounged in a large arm chair. He lit his pipe and looked up to the ceiling. "Now what am I forgetting? Oh, yes! Of course. Alacazam! I have no idea what that stone in your pocket is, but _she_ just might."

A small coach appeared in the corner near the door. "Go on boys, go on," Merlin motioned when they didn't move. With a hearty sigh the old wizard sank down even more into his chair.

Naruto instantly squatted down and squinted at the coach. "What is it?"

In a shower of light and sparkles, an old woman wearing a light blue cloak appeared. "Hello, dears," she said with a smile. "I'm the Fairy Godmother. Your king, as well as Merlin, has asked me to assist you." The smile slowly faded and her eyes grew bright with tears. "I will do anything if you would save my dear godchild. She's been kidnapped by the darkness, you see."

Sora nodded. She was hurting, too. And there would be more hopeless victims of the darkness if he didn't do something about it. "We'll save her. I promise." A sudden tug in his pocket made Sora look down at the small gem that Leon had given him. He stared in it with wonder as it shown bright in his hand, almost as if it were alive. The keyblade master looked up at the Fairy Godmother. Recognition was written all over her face. Sora held out the gem. "You know what this is, don't you?"

She took the green stone gingerly. "Oh, the poor thing! He has turned into a summon gem."

Naruto looked at Donald who simply shrugged. Goofy finally asked the question on their minds. "Uh, what's a summon gem?"

The Fairy Godmother smiled at him and stroked the stone in a comforting way. "This little creature lived in a world that was consumed by darkness. When a world vanishes, so do its inhabitants." Sora and Naruto deflated, thinking of their friends from their respected homes. Did that mean that they were all gone as well? The Fairy Godmother continued. "But this one had _such_ a strong heart." She said with pride. "He became a gem instead of vanishing with his world."

"That sucks!" Naruto said, frowning. "Who wants to live like a stone for the rest of their life?"

Donald nodded in agreement with the blonde. He asked, "Can he regain himself?"

"Yes. But unfortunately, until his world is returned, only his spirit can be restored. Now watch!" she said with a gleam in her eye. "Bibbity, bobbity, boo!"

The silhouette of a lion appeared in the room for a moment. Sora opened his mouth to ask who it was when the word "Simba," came from his lips instead.

The Fairy Godmother chuckled. "Whenever you call, he will help you. If you find more these gems, bring them to me. You must save these poor souls."

Sora looked at his friends and grinned, putting his hands behind his back. "Don't worry. We will."

* * *

Sakura looked at her team mate in disbelief. Had he really just asked for her help? No. He never would; even if he did, he wouldn't ask _her_. "Why should I believe you? You've never needed mine _or_ Naruto's help before."

Sasuke smirked. He had expected an answer like that from her. Unlike that dumb blonde, she actually had a brain, when she wasn't drooling over his life that is. "Because I don't plan on being someone else's puppet."

This, however, proved to have the opposite effect of convincing her. When her face changed a darker shade of pink than her hair, he knew that Sakura was _mad_. "Yeah? Well neither do I! So you and your bozo friend here can just leave and I'll find my own way home without yours _or_ Naruto's help."

"Sasuke," Riku said suddenly, "She's not going to come willingly. If you really want her to come with us then you either knock her out or I will. Either way, though, we need to get Kairi back." Sasuke glared at the older boy in contempt.

With a wave of his hand, Sasuke dismissed Riku. "Fine. You can go after her, but I still need to talk to Sakura."

The silver haired boy gritted his teeth in annoyance. Sometime soon he was going have to show that snot nosed brat a thing or two, but for now he needed to get his friend back.

The two Konoha shinobi watched Riku run out before they looked at each other again. "What do you want, Sasuke?" the kunoichi asked with a slight tint of annoyance in her voice.

"Orochimaru's back," the Uchiha said. He watched as his teammate shivered in fear at the thought of the memory. "He's teamed up with the organization Riku and I are in. He hasn't done anything yet, but I decided I'm not going to let him. But I can't do it alone."

Had this been a week ago, Sakura would have squealed with delight at the thought of her dream guy asking for her help. But now the pink haired kunoichi stared at him. "Sasuke… I'm not that same girl. I have other obligations now. You know I'm not strong enough, too. Ansem needs me more than you do. Go get that Riku guy to help you."In the back of her mind, Sakura could hear her inner self raging at her answer, but she ignored it and looked at her teammate hard. "Or better yet, why not go find Naruto and get _him_ to help you. Or is he too strong for you?"

Sasuke growled at the thought of the dobe being better than him. _'He is not. I'm an Uchiha! He's just a nobody. What can he do?' _He thought to himself, but in the depths of his mind he could hear that annoying voice reminding him, _'He has improved though. Quickly too. If he keeps up the pace he'll be even with you, if not better.'_ "I don't _need_ that idiot," he growl out. "Sakura." The kunoichi stared at him. "If you won't help me, then you can just stay here for all I care."

Sakura waited until he had stalked out of the room before running the opposite direction to reach the town before that Riku guy could. She had smelled fresh air escaping from an open draft as Sasuke had spoken to her and right now it seemed that her senses would have to save her friends.

* * *

After their talk with the Fairy Godmother, Sora and the group had returned to Merlin to give him the book. Merlin squinted at it for a moment before recognition hit him. "Oh that book… So, Cid asked you to bring this. Thank you."

The old wizard looked at Sora while he placed the book on a stand. "You wish to know what kind of book it is." It was not a question. He shrugged his shoulders. "Honestly, I don't even know, myself. In fact it's not mine. Somehow it found its way into my bag one day." Naruto was about to ask how a book could do such a thing when Merlin, once again, cut him off. "Now I don't know how it did, but when I opened it, it was there." The blonde shinobi was beginning to wonder if the old wizard could tell the future. That'd be a question to ask later.

"Of _course_ I can read the future! Or the near future at least. Now don't ask silly questions. Anyways, the book was such a curious one that I asked Cid to repair it for me." Merlin's eyes crinkled in delight as he lowered his voice. "This book holds a great secret. Now, it will only hold one person at a time, but I'll let you look at it whenever you want to."

Sora looked at his friends. "Does anyone mind if I go in?" Donald smiled and took the book off the shelf while Goofy grinned and motioned him to go. Naruto simply muttered something about books being "too hard to read". Donald flipped open the book and held it out towards Sora who took a jump and magically shrunk to the size of the illustrations.

Meanwhile, across town, Kiba patted Akamaru while he sulked. Shikamaru had fallen asleep on the hotel bed, as was to be expected, but Naruto on the other hand just sat in the chair looking up at the ceiling.

"Soooo," Kiba said, trying to start a conversation. "Anyone up for Go Fish?" Naruto's eyes suddenly widened and he looked at the Inuzuka and gave his famous grin.

"How about a prank instead?" Kiba gave him a skeptical look as if to say, 'Whatever loser.' But Naruto just smiled slyly. "On Leon?"

Akamaru barked and Kiba grinned. "Me and Akamaru think that sounds good. What about you Shikamaru?"

The shadow user opened his eyes and glared, not happy at being woken up. "This better not turn out too troublesome."

"See yah, Cid," Leon said as he walked out of the Item Shop. He sighed when he looked to the middle of the square and found Naruto and Shikamaru standing in the middle of the square. "What do you want?" he asked glumly, mainly towards Naruto.

Naruto grinned largely, looking very fox like, and pointed towards the scarred man. "Welcome to your worst nightmare."

Leon, not the least bit fazed, looked at the boys with a bored look. "I'm sure that Aerith is looking for you. Why don't you back up to the hotel room and wait for dinner."

Naruto nodded to Shikamaru who sank to one knee and muttered, "Kagemane no Jutsu." His shadow stretched forward until it had reached Leon's, who had no idea about the abilities of the technique, successfully connecting and taking control of his movements.

Leon frowned as he tried to his arms to no avail. "What is this?" he asked in a low, dangerous voice.

"This is a Konoha secret technique! You are completely under our control," Naruto exclaimed evilly. His voice lowered to a mischievous seriousness. "That means we can make you do whatever we want."

At that precise moment, whether by coincidence or not, a little old lady walking her small white dog walked out from around the corner. Leon felt his body being moved towards her as Shikamaru controlled him. He dreaded what would come next.

"Hello, Leon, dear," the old lady said. Leon's hand started to move towards her plastic purse, and for the one of the few times of his life, he was nervous. Everyone knew that old ladies could kick booty.

"No! Wait! Stop it!" Leon yelled as his hand grabbed the purse and began tugging at it. The little old lady changed from nice to mean in an instance.

"How day you steal from me!" she shrieked. "Even my grandchildren are better taught than that! Get him Poochie!" She yanked the purse away and began to beat Leon savagely, with a little help from her small dog biting the Traverse Town leader.

Yuffie, alerted by the cries, jumped down from one of the roofs. "Leon?" she asked, "what's going o-" her eyes bulged as Leon reached out for her to help him while his head was attacked by the purse (which he was sure contained bricks in it) and his bum had a strong pair of teeth sunk in. Yuffie fell on the ground laughing hysterically, unable to even speak.

On the first purse strike, Shikamaru let go of the jutsu and ran off quickly and quietly with Naruto towards the hotel room. Even when they had finally closed door, both shinobi could swear they heard someone screaming and yelling in agony. Naruto chuckled. Revenge was sweet.

It was half an hour before there was a knock on the door. Naruto leapt up to open it and inside walked the little old lady. "How are you, Naruto, dear?" she asked sweetly. The image was shattered when her voice became deep and masculine, "You owe me for this."

In a puff of smoke, the little old lady with her small dog disappeared and Kiba and Akamaru stood in their place. "As funny as it was," Kiba remarked, "why couldn't _you_ be the one to dress in drag?"

Naruto grinned and laughed. "Because I was smart enough to claim another job first!" Kiba just growled and sat down on the couch that Shikamaru was already sprawled across, asleep.

* * *

Sora waved goodbye to Merlin and walked into the third district. The old magician had showed him a few spells after he had come back from the 100 Acre Woods, promising to teach him more later when they both had more time. Merlin had asked them to find more pages of the book if they could. "After all," he had said, "a book is its own world."

Donald frowned when the door closed. "Looks like we have more things to find," he grumbled. But no one had time to comment.

"Sora! There's heartless!" Naruto yelled suddenly, bringing everyone to attention.

The keyblade master scowled at them. Why couldn't they just leave him alone for just _once_? But as the group prepared to lung, the heartless disappeared in a cloud of black smoke. Sora gaped in surprise at the figure standing in front of them, holding a keyblade and expertly swinging it.

"There you are!" Riku said, smiling. "What's going on?"

Sora grinned widely and rushed up to him. "Riku!" he exclaimed while pulling his friend's cheeks out in an attempt to make him keep smiling.

Riku scowled. "Hey. Hey! Cut it out!" Sora grinned widely and looked his friend up and down.

"I'm not dreaming this time. Right?" the keyblade bearer asked.

Riku smiled again and ran his fingers through his silver hair. "I hope not," he said with a chuckle. "It took forever to find you."

"Just how _did_ you find me?"

Riku frowned for moment, thinking back.

_-Flashback-_

_Riku banged his fist against the wall. He had lost those kids… and Kairi. It was to be expected because he had no idea about the layout of this town, but it still didn't stop him from being depressed. "I'll never find her," he muttered._

"_Perhaps not yet," a cool feminine voice said behind him. Riku whipped around to see Maleficent appearing in a flurry of black and green flames. "I have, however, found your other little friend."_

"_Sora!" Riku exclaimed. "Where is he?"_

_Maleficent frowned as if sad. "He is in Traverse Town, but unfortunately, he has replaced you with some new friends." The witch stooped down to pat him on the back comfortingly._

_Riku shook his head. "Sora would never do that," he said with certainty in his voice. "He may not be a lot of things, like smart for instance, but he's always loyal."_

_Maleficent frowned and stood up to her full height. "Very well. I shall take you to see him, and you can decide for yourself."_

"_What about Sasuke?" the islander asked. "Is he coming?"_

_She shook her head. "He has… other obligations," she told him. With no more questions, Maleficent opened up a portal that would lead them to Traverse Town._

_-End Flashback-_

"Um… I heard something from a few people," the silver haired teen finally said. Sora simply smiled and said his name again happily.

While the two old friends laughed back and forth, Donald, Goofy, and Naruto had stood back and assessed the new comer.

Donald, wary of all strangers, stared at him through suspicious eyes. Something wasn't quite right about him, almost as if he had touched the darkness.

"Hey, wait a minute! Where's Kairi?" Sora asked suddenly.

Riku flinched and asked innocently, "Isn't she with you?" If Maleficent was right about Sora's new friends, then he wanted to make sure he actually cared about looking for her.

Sora hung his down and muttered, "I saw her in the Secret Place before I left, but she disappeared."

"Well don't worry," said Riku, walking away so Sora couldn't read his face. "I'm sure she made it off the island too." The older boy looked towards the starlit sky and took a deep satisfied breath. "We're finally free," he said more to himself than anyone else. "And hey, she might even be looking for us now."

As he talked, a shadow heartless morphed out of the ground. It looked at Riku with hunger in its yellow eyes. Riku, still facing away from Sora, continued talking. "We'll all be together soon." At least he hoped so. "Don't worry. Just leave everything to me." Sora stared at the heartless, preparing to lunge at his friend and called forth his keyblade. "I know this-"he was cut short by the sound of Sora's keyblade cutting through the heartless.

Riku turned around and stared at Sora who propped his keyblade across his shoulders. "Leave it to _who_?" he asked cockily.

"Showoff," Donald muttered. The others couldn't help but agree.

Riku closed his gaping mouth and walked over to his friend. "Sora, wh-what did you-"

"I've been looking for you and Kairi, too," he grinned, glad that he actually had something to goad over the older boy's head for once.

"Ahem," coughed Donald.

"With their help," Sora amended.

Riku stared hard at them. '_These must them,'_ he thought._ 'His new friends.' _While he had never seen anything like Donald and Goofy before, it was Naruto that caught his interest. He had recently learned from Sasuke that these… shinobi… all wore headbands that signified where they came from. The blonde boy had a headband identical to the one that Sasuke wore. He tucked the information to the back of his head. Sasuke would probably want to know this. "Who are they?" he asked Sora.

"Ahem," Donald said, holding a hand to his chest. "My name is-" he was cut off by Sora.

"We visited so many places worlds, looking for you!" the keybearer said in an excited flourish.

"And our friends, too," Naruto muttered. For some reason, he didn't like how Sora completely ignored them when this Riku guy was around. He'd be glad when he left and looking at Donald and Goofy, he could tell they felt the same.

Riku gave Sora a hard look. "Really? Well what do yah know. I never would have guessed."

Goofy walked over and grinned. "Oh, and guess what?" he said, putting his hands on Sora's sholders. "Sora's the Keyblade Master."

Donald walked off and muttered, "Who would have thought it."

Sora looked down for a second at an annoyed Donald. "What's that mean?" he yelled. Naruto snickered quietly to the side.

"And who would have thought that Blondie over here was a real ninja," the magician added.

"Hey!" said blonde yelled.

Riku broke up the fight that was sure to come by saying, "So this is called a keyblade?" The group looked up to see Riku holding Sora's weapon up and inspecting it.

Sora looked at his hand. "Huh?" He hadn't remembered summoning it. "Hey! Give it back!" The keybearer lunged for his friend.

Riku back up a pace and ignored Sora as he lost his balance and fell on his back. The silver haired teen was more interested in the Key. Naruto could feel a slight bit of jealousy in the air. "Catch," Riku said in a monotone voice before throwing the keyblade.

"Whoa!" The newly standing up Sora caught the weapon in both hands, almost dropping it. Once he had regained his balance with both feet and keyblade, the brunette looked at his best friend. "Okay. So you're coming with us, right?"

Naruto, Donald, and Goofy looked at each other in fright. If Riku came, they might as well just abandon their own separate missions. Sora was loyal, but he was easily distracted and Riku seemed to be an expert at distracting him.

Sora continued, not notice his friend's stares. "We got this _awesome_ rocket. Wait 'til you see it!"

Donald finally decided to take a stand. "No. He can't come!" the duck shouted with an angry face. Riku had seen them exchanging looks and he knew the reasoning behind it. He frowned at the entire group.

"What?" said Sora while stopping a foot down.

"Forget it!" Donald threw back.

"Oh, come on! He's my friend!"

Donald's face was turning red. "I don't care."

Goofy looked up from the fight and back at Riku. "He's gone!" he exclaimed.

Sora examined the entire area. "Riku?" The square was completely empty. Donald stood waiting for the keybearer with arms crossed and his foot tapping. Sora didn't face him, but his disappointment was evident in his voice. "Nice going." The brunette scratched his head. "Oh, well. At least he's okay." Sora's hands went behind his head in his relaxing way and looked up at the sky. "And who knows. Maybe we'll run into Kairi soon, too."

"And Sasuke and Sakura!" Naruto shouted in excitement.

"And the king, too!" Goofy joined in.

* * *

"You see? It's just as I told you," said a chilling voice. Riku glared up at Maleficent. He didn't want to believe her, but the truth was right below him in the square. "While you toiled away trying to find your dear friends, he quite simply… replaced you with some new companions."

Riku glared down at the boy he had once called his best friend. Maleficent was right. Sora didn't care for either him _or_ Kairi. Otherwise he wouldn't have all these new people he called friends. Well, if that was the way it was, then so be it. Riku would get some new friends of his own to replace Sora and he'd find Kairi on his _own_.

Maleficent felt his fury and added one more stinging remark. Just a little more anger and he would be under her control. "It's quite evident that he values them are more than he values you." Riku gritted his teeth and punched the wall next to him. The witch smiled. "Now come along. You're better off without that wretched boy." And Riku figured she must be right and followed her into the dark portal.

* * *

I'll put everything up later. I'm in a rush right now.

Oh, and Happy Father's Day!


	16. Beasts of the Coliseum

Author's Note: Yeah I'm alive. I know it's been almost a year since I last updated and I'm really sorry about that. I've been more focused on art and scholarships and college acceptance stuff more than anything else. I ran into a bit of writer's block on this one around the middle and left it alone for a few months before getting back and continuing. I debated whether or not to write about the actual rounds at the end... but decided I might as well post this up. So anyways, enjoy. ^^

**A Ninja and a Keybearer**

_Chapter 13: Beasts of the Coliseum_

It wasn't long until the group found Leon and the others again. On the way back to report to Cid about his book, Sora had noticed that the small house beside the entrance to the second district was lit. Naruto peered into the window and quietly swallowed his fear.

"Hey, um, Sora?"

The keybearer looked at the shinobi. "Yeah? What is it? Do you see anything in there?"

Naruto looked at his friends and grinned. "It's, uh, Leon and them."

Donald quacked in delight and started walking towards the door. "Let's go in!" As Goofy followed his friend inside the small house, Sora turned to Naruto.

"We need to stick to the plan. Right now you're at the hotel with the rest of your shinobi friends and Leon doesn't know you're with us. It would be better to stay here or disappear." The genin nodded in agreement before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. The Keyblade Master simply smirked before walking in behind his friends.

Yuffie was the first to see them and jumped up with joy to greet them. "Hey, guys! Do you like our new headquarters?"

Aerith smiled. "We just cleaned it up. It's much nicer than the hotel."

Cid and Leon looked up then from their quiet conversation. The enthusiastic greeting on Sora's lips died at the sight of their grim expressions.

"Say, uh, what's goin' on?" Goofy asked, slightly worried.

Leon looked at Cid, questioningly. Cid sighed and addressed the group. "Y'all ever hear of Maleficent? I hear she's in town."

The atmosphere immediately changed as Aerith gasped and Yuffie yelled, "What?" in surprise. The air became thick with the uncomfortable silence.

"Who is she?" Sora asked quietly.

"A witch! She's a witch man!" Cid said, a level below yelling.

Leon, his back to the wall, without breaking his constant glare at the floor, said in his normal monotone voice, "She's the reason this town is full of heartless. She's not to be taken lightly."

Aerith held her hands to chest, as if to comfort herself. She took a side long looked at Leon. "She's been using the heartless for years."

"We lost our world thanks to her," the gunblader added, a slight bit of anger hinted in his voice. "That was nine years ago."

Cid flicked his nose with his thumb. "I got outta that mess and came here with these guys."

"That's awful!" Donald crossed his arms and tapped his foot. Hearing an actual account of what damage the heartless could actually do was starting to make him want to clean up the mess and he was pretty sure the others felt the same way.

"Our ruler was a wise man named Ansem," Yuffie said, adding in her two bit. "He dedicated his life to studying the heartless. It's said that he wrote a report on his findings."

"It should tell us how to get rid of the heartless," Cid said with confidence.

"Well, where is it?" the Keyblade Master asked, prepared to defeat his new foes. Cid coughed, all confidence gone.

"We don't know," Leon bluntly stated. "It got scattered when our world was destroyed."

Cid huffed and scowled at nothing in particular. "I betcha anythin' Maleficent's got most of 'em."

Sora crossed his hands behind his head and leaned back. "Then we'll find the report and bring it back!" he declared so boldly that the entire mood of the room lifted immediately. He was sure Naruto would have been proud.

"So," Cid said suddenly, determined to keep the mood happy with another conversation. "Did you deliver the book?" The group nodded. It was then that Donald noticed something odd.

Cid flicked his nose. "That navigation gummi's installed and ready to go. You find another one and you bring it to me."

Donald counted on his fingers. There was only three of their little group. "Hey, wait a second," he started to say. "Where's-!" His sentenced was immediately cut short by Sora dragging him out of the small house with a hand over his beak.

He waved goodbye as he said, "Thanks, Cid! See you later! We'll find as many of those reports as we can! Bye!"

Goofy chuckled and followed his friends. They did such strange things.

* * *

The gang had quickly hopped on the gummi ship, Donald unable to speak, or yell, the entire way. Once the doors were closed though and the ship took flight, the magician exploded into an angry storm. What he said was not at all understandable, but it is probably for the best that it wasn't.

At that precise moment, who but the Number One Most Unpredictable Shinobi walked of the dorm room rubbing sleep from his eyes? "What's all the yelling about?"

Goofy looked at the clueless Naruto to the grinning Sora and smiled widely. "I knew you had a plan!" he exclaimed happily. Donald, however, was anything but happy. It is here that we shall skip over Donald's temper tantrum and focus on more important things, like Sora's explanation of how Naruto was asleep on the ship in the first place.

"Naruto made clones of himself and sent them everywhere to fool Leon." Sora shrugged as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

Naruto, fully awake now, grinned widely. "So he fell for it?"

"Everyone did," Sora informed him while they all laughed, with the exception of Donald. "So. Where to now?"

"How 'bout that world right there?" Goofy asked, pointing to it. Sand covered the bottom of the world, and giant Roman pillars stood up around a large building in the center. Two brass statues stood locked in a frozen battle above the door. Naruto's spirits began to lift a little higher. This was a fighting place, he could tell.

As the group walked through the giant double doors, awe filled their faces. "Look at this place!" Naruto exclaimed. "It's gotta be a fighting arena or something!"

Jiminy Cricket jumped out and took a look at their surroundings, whistling at the size of the place. "I believe the proper term is coliseum. The Greek Olympians would hold games here to determine who was the best of the best."

"Then let's go join the games," Naruto said excitedly. And before they could stop him, he had bolted off to through the opposite doors.

* * *

Inside the room, the walls were lined with trophies. Pedestals and a large block also lined the sides. Naruto stood by the door, waiting for his friends. With a confused look on his face, he pointed to a figure standing on one such pedestal and writing Greek letters on a board. "What is it?" he whispered.

'It' was a short, fat little man with the remnants of red hair. However, he was anything but normal. Horns stood out of his head and from his waist down, he was completely goat. Jiminy jumped out from Sora's pocket, with his large journal. He leafed through the pages until he found one particular one. "He's a satyr," he whispered. "Part man, part goat."

Sora walked up cautiously. "Um," he started to say uncertainly.

"Good timing!" The goat-man said without turning around, continuing with his little scrawls. "Give me a hand, will yah? Move that pedestal for me? I gotta spruce this place up for the games." He pointed to the large block beside the wall. Their faces fell.

"_That_ thing?" Donald asked quietly. Sora took a deep breath and walked over to the pedestal. With every bit of strength he had he pushed against the block. He tried for quite a few minutes. It didn't even shift.

The keyblade master wiped the sweat off his brow. "It weighs a ton!" he said through ragged breaths.

Naruto marched over to the goat-man. "That things too big to move!" he almost yelled. The goat man stopped writing.

"Yeah, it's way too heavy!" Sora added.

The little man started to yell. Loudly. "What? Too heavy!" He turned around then, face slightly red. "Since when have you been such a little-" He paused when he saw just who he was talking to was actually shorter than who he had expected. He looked down and saw Sora, Naruto, Donald, and Goofy grinning at him. "Oh… Wrong guy. Call me Phil. What are you doing here?"

He jumped off the pedestal he had been standing on and started swaggering towards the group, who inched back as he did, saying, and "This here's the world-famous coliseum_. Heroes_ only. And I got my hands full preparing for the games," he said, stressing the word 'games'. He waved his hand as if shooing them off. "So run along, pip-squeaks."

Sora's face scrunched into a scowl, but he said nothing. Naruto, on the other hand, had to be restrained by Goofy. "Pip-squeak? I'll show you pip-squeak! Why I oughta-" The knight clamped a gloved hand over the boy's mouth before he could say anything out of place.

Phil sighed and placed his hands on his hips. "Look. It's like this," he in a much softer, almost apologetic tone, as he paced in front of the group. "Heroes are coming from all over to fight ferocious monsters right here in the Coliseum."

Donald scowled and crossed his arms, replying angrily, "You got heroes standing right in front of you!"

Goofy placed his hands on Sora's shoulders, shaking him a little. "Yup. He's a real hero chosen by the keyblade!"

"And we're heroes, too!" Donald exclaimed, pointed to himself as he did.

Naruto, not wanting to be left out, proclaimed his two-bit. "And I'm gonna be the best Hokage there ever was!"

The satyr's eyebrows went up. "Well I don't know what a Hokage is, but it can't too important if _you're_ going to be the best," he said, the laughter evident in his voice. Once again, Naruto had to be held back. Phil then pointed to Sora. "And a _hero_? _That_ runt?" He laughed coarsely, holding his sides as his belly jiggled.

Sora's hands balled into fists as he took a step forward defensively. "What's so funny? I've fought lots of monsters!" Naruto mumbled something from under Goofy's hand that sounded like an agreement.

The satyr finished his bout of laughter and swiftly pointed an accusing finger. "Hey, if you can't even move this…" he said, trying to push the large pedestal. The group deadpanned as they watched him. Phil then attempted to push it with his back, "then you can't call yourselves…"Donald and Goofy exchanged glances, Sora crossed his arms and looked away, and Naruto snickered. "HEROES!" he yelled, voice strained from the effort of pushing the large rock. Phil gave up then, sliding down into a sitting position and panting from the exertion. After a moment, voice still ragged from winded breaths, he spoke. "Okay. So it takes more than brawn. Well…" he took a deep breath," well, let's see what you can do." He scowled at them, daring them to take his challenge.

Naruto stepped forward, flicking his nose. "Sure thing. We'll show you just what we're made of."

* * *

After _many _practice rounds of destroying barrels, everyone began getting tired and bored. Naruto, being himself, started grumbling, his temper slowly rising with each barrel. Donald, however, was getting red in the face, and not just from the exertion of energy. Even Goofy's good humor was running thin. Each and every one of them sighed with relief when Phil finally deemed them worthy of moving on from training. There was just one slight problem.

"WHAT DO YA MEAN WE CAN'T ENTER THE GAMES?" Naruto screamed.

Phil held up two fingers agitatedly. "Two words: You guys ain't heros." Goofy counted slowly on his fingers.

"Come on!" Sora begged.

"Aw phoey," Donald muttered.

Suddenly a voice cried out, heading towards the group. "Sensei! I am ready for my next training exercise!" A boy with black, bowl cut and the most enormous eye brows anyone had ever seen came running up to Phil. He was dressed in green spandex and bright orange leg warmers, which were almost as obnoxious as Naruto's jump suit. His bandaged hands formed into fists as he exclaimed, "And if cannot finish this one, then I will run around the entire coliseum- on my thumbs!"

Naruto turned around suddenly. "No way. Bushy-Brow?" The boy, just noticing the group, cried out with joy when he saw Naruto.

"Uzumaki Naruto! You cannot begin to understand the feelings of joy I feel now by seeing your worthy face! I have longed for someone to spar with, but no one in this fighting arena seems to be any good!" Naruto smiled grimly.

"They're plenty good… just can't match that endurance and energy," Phil said out of the corner of his mouth to Donald.

"I have, however, heard of the most worthy opponent ever, but alas this man they call Hercules is away." The boy suddenly turned to the rest of the group. "A thousand pardons. Had I not been so overjoyed by seeing Naruto's youthful face, I would have introduced myself. For that, I will do a thousand pushups as a punishment!"

Donald quickly raised his hands up in protest. "No, no! That's fine!"

He nodded gratefully then struck a pose. "I am Rock Lee, the Youthful Green Beast of Konoha!"

Naruto nodded. "Busy-Brow and I are friends back in Konoha. This is Sora, Donald, and Goofy. We're traveling together."

Phil spoke up then. "Seems Lee somehow found his way into the coliseum and wouldn't leave me alone until I let him into training."

Lee turned back to Naruto. "Have you have come to train as well?"

The blonde shinobi looked pointedly at Phil and said, "We were, but we're not allowed in the games."

Almost immediately, Lee got on his knees before Phil and proclaimed boldly, "Sensei, I will do anything if you would let my new friends join in the tournament!"

Phil rolled his eyes. "I'm sure you would, but I have three words for you: they ain't getting in."

Sora, fed up with the rejection, stomped out of the room and the group followed him, Naruto a bit reluctantly at first. When the door shut behind them, Sora scowled out the ground. "Come on guys, let's go." They began to make their way to gummi ship when a voiced stopped them.

* * *

"Huuuuh. Rather a stubborn old goat, wouldn't you say?" The voiced belonged to a man dressed in a black and grey toga. He was tall with a striking face, but what everyone noticed at first was the blue flames where his hair should have been. He was entirely blue and his eyes a contrasting yellow. He smirked at them.

"Who are you?" Donald asked, pointing an accusing finger.

The man waved his hands and walked towards them. "Whoa, hey, hold on there, fuzz boy."

"What do you want?" Naruto asked crossly. The blonde was in a foul mood and he scowled menacingly.

The man chuckled. "Wait, let me guess. _You_ want to enter the games, right?" He stopped walking once he was behind Sora. He placed a hand on the boy's shoulder and held out his hand. "Well, then take a look at this." In a ball of blue flame, a gold card appeared between his fingers. In bold gold print, it read, 'Official Entry Pass for the Olympian Games'.

"A pass?" the keyblader asked in wonderment as he took it in his hand.

As the man began to walk away, Naruto called out after him. "What's the catch? Huh?"

He chuckled and didn't even bother turning around. "No catch. It's all yours." He held up a hand in farewell. "Good luck, kids. I'm pullin' for ya little shorty." In a moment, he was gone, completely vanished into thin air.

The group stared at the spot he had just been in. Goofy scratched his head. "Say, just who do ya think that feller was?"

A smiled slowly started growing on the blonde shinobi's face. "Who cares? We get to enter the games!" Sora and Naruto immediately started running to the lobby entrance, laughing all the way.

Goofy looked at Donald and frowned. "Y'know somethin', I have a bad feelin' about this." Donald looked back up at his old friend and nodded in agreement; worry lines showing on his face.

* * *

"Phil! Phil!" Sora and Naruto ran in, screaming in unison. "We got a pass!"

The satyr snatched the golden piece of paper from them and looked at it incredulously. "Hey, how'd you get _this_?"

"We can enter the games now right?" Sora pressed, ignoring his question on purpose.

Phil bit his lip and rolled his eyes. "Fine! I guess. We start with the preliminaries!"

At that moment, Rock Lee burst through the doors, tears streaming down his face. "Thank you, sensei! We will all make you proud!"

The old trainer raised an eyebrow. "'We'?"

"Yes! I plan to enter the games with my new friends!" Everyone grinned widely. What a great team they'd make! They'd be sure to win.

"HOLD IT!" The goat walked in between them all, staring them down, daring anyone to be happy. "Rule Number 156; No more than three contestants in a team." Everyone's faces fell.

Phil sighed and spoke up again. "However, you can all split up into smaller teams."

No one wanted to split up, but finally Naruto spoke first. "I'll team up with Bushy-Brows. We know how the other fights, so it'll be easier for us."

Sora nodded at him and turned back to Phil. "Let's get this thing started."

* * *

Getting into the games was easy.. a little too easy. Nothing is completely free, you know, not even special passes. What's the catch? How will Sora and the gang fair in their rounds? Who is that mysterious blonde man awaiting his turn to fight in the corners? And just _why_ was that man with the flaming hair so generous? Meanwhile, back in Traverse Town, will Sakura be able to get to her friends in time to protect them? Will Ansem finally realize that she can be trusted? _NEXT TIME: Finding the Light_


End file.
